NA  AND 

'   METHODISM 


$B    155    bbfl 


MES  \y.  BASilFORD 


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^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


China  and   Methodism 


By 
JAMES  W.  ^ASHFORD 

A  Bishop  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church 


CINCINNATI:    JENNINGS   AND   GRAHAM 
NEW  YORK;    EATON     AND     MAINS 


Copyright,    1906,    bv 
Jennings  &  Graham 


PREFACE 

This  booklet  is  in  no  sense  a  history  of  our 
Methodist  Episcopal  Missions  in  China.  It 
is  not  even  an  attempt  to  express  appreci- 
ation of  the  splendid  achievements  of  our 
.missionaries.  Full  half  of  the  space  al- 
lotted has  been  taken  for  a  general  account 
of  the  land,  the  people,  and  the  religions  of 
China,  because  interest  in  and  appreciation 
of  our  v^ork  depend  upon  seeing  our  Mis- 
sions in  their  relations  to  the  unfolding  life 
of  this  vast  empire.  We  have  simply  at- 
tempted to  present  such  a  brief  outline  as 
will  enable  American  Methodists  to  under- 
stand the  problem  which  confronts  us  and 
to  make  preparation  for  a  suitable  partic- 
ipation in  the  centennial  celebration  of  the 
founding  of  Protestant  Missions  in  China. 
This  celebration  will  occur  in  Shanghai, 
April  25  to  May  6,  1907,  and  American 
Methodism  ought  to  contribute  three  hun- 
3 


4  Preface. 

dred  thousand  dollars  for  the  strengthening 
and  enlargement  of  our  work.  If  the 
Church  at  home  can  only  realize  that  the 
opportunity  which  now  confronts  us  in  the 
Chinese  Empire  is  probably  the  greatest 
which  has  confronted  our  Church  through- 
out her  history,  the  amount  will  be  readily 
and  speedily  pledged. 

For  the  statements  contained  in  this  little 
book,  I  have  relied  upon  fourteen  note- 
books, filled  with  observations  made  while 
visiting  twelve  of  the  eighteen  provinces; 
upon  conversations  with  several  hundred 
foreigners  residing  in  China  from  ten  to 
fifty  years;  upon  Chinese  Christians,  who, 
when  they  became  confidential,  threw  new 
light  upon  the  problems  mentioned  in  the 
booklet;  upon  Chinese  officials,  whose 
words  and  acts  furnished  interesting 
glimpses  of  the  external  life  of  the  em- 
pire; and  upon  some  seventy  volumes  on 
China.  The  standard  work  is  S.  Wells 
Williams'  The  Middle  Kingdom,  two  vol- 
umes, revised  in  1882.  I  wish  it  were  re- 
vised again  and  brought  down  to  date. 
Arthur  Smith's  Chinese  Characteristics  and 
Village  Life  in  China  are  the  most  inter- 


Preface.  S 

esting  and  most  informing  volumes  upon 
the  empire.  Archibald  Little's  Far  Bast  fur- 
nishes the  best  text-book  on  the  geography 
of  the  empire,  while  Jernigan's  China  in 
Law  and  Commerce  does  for  the  twenty- 
two  provinces  more  fully  than  any  other 
volume  what  DeTocqueville's  Democracy 
in  America  did  for  the  United  States. 

For  the  statistics  quoted,  I  have  relied 
upon  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Britannica, 
1902;  the  new  International  Encyclopedia, 
1902;  the  tenth  edition  of  Mill's  Interna- 
tional Geography,  1903 ;  the  Report  of  the 
Imperial  Maritime  Customs  for  1905,  the 
Statesmen's  Year-Book  for  1905,  and  the 
Protestant  Directory  of  Missions  for  1906. 
For  the  new  statistics  on  Manchuria,  I  have 
relied  upon  Consul- General  Hosie's  author- 
itative volume  on  Manchuria,  1900;  upon 
the  Japanese  report  on  Manchuria,  1903-4, 
and  upon  B.  Putman  Weale's  Manchu  and 
Muscovite,  1904. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/chinamethodismOObashrich 


CONTENTS 


Chapter 

I.  Land  and  People, 

Pagb 

9 

II. 

Religions,     -         -         -         - 

17 

III. 

Christianity  in  the  Empire, 

33 

IV. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
China,    -         -         -         - 

45 

V. 

Possibilities,      -         .         -        - 

89 

Methodist  Episcopal  Mission- 
aries IN  China, 

107 

China  and  Methodism 


CHAPTER  I. 

Land  and  PeopIvE. 

Our  aim  in  this  chapter  is  to  furnish  such 
a  view  of  the  land,  its  location,  fertility,  ir- 
rigation,   enrichment,    and    cultivation    as 
will     enable    Americans     to    un- 
The  Land  dcrstaud      and      appreciate      the 
population    of    the    empire.    The 
latitude  of  the  Great  Wall,   which  marks 
the  northern   boundary   of   China   Proper, 
corresponds    roughly    with    a    line    drawn 
from      Philadelphia      to      Topeka,      Kan- 
sas.   Imagine  a  body  of  land,  compact  and 
rectangular  in  shape,  extending  east  and 
west  from  Philadelphia  to  Topeka,  and  far 
enough  south  to  include  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico and  part  of  Yucatan,  South  America, 
and  you  have  the  location  of  China  Proper. 
9 


10  China  and  Methodism. 

The  location  of  China  makes  the  climate 
more  nearly  semi-tropical  than  the  climate 
of  either  the  United  States  or  Europe,  and 
enables  the  people  in  nearly  three-fourths 
of  the  provinces  to  produce  two  crops  a 
year. 

The  second  cause  of  the  fertility  of  the 
empire  is  its  immense  plains.  Imagine  a 
mountain  region,  rising  upon  an  average  to 
nearly  twice  the  height  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  you  have  the  western  dependen- 
cies of  Tibet  and  Turkestan.  These  mountain 
ranges  gradually  descend  eastward,  form- 
ing immense  plains  similar  to  the  plains  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley.  Exceptions  to  this 
description  are  found  in  the  mountains  of 
the  Shantung  and  Fukien  Provinces  in 
the  east,  and  in  the  Chentu  Plain  in  the 
west.  But  in  general,  China  consists  of  im- 
mense plains  and  deltas  in  the  east,  rising 
to  rolling  and  hilly  and  mountainous  coun- 
try  as   one   journeys   westward. 

The  third  cause  of  the  great  fertility  of 
China  is  the  almost  universal  irrigation  of 
the  soil.  Irrigation  makes  possible  the  im- 
mense rice  area  of  China,  and  one  and  of- 
ten two  other  crops  follow  the  rice  crop. 


Land  and  People.  11 

The  fourth  cause  of  the  fertility  of  the 
empire  is  the  enrichment  of  the  soil  by  the 
use  of  every  particle  of  fertilizer  pro- 
duced in  the  empire,  and  the  natural 
enrichment  of  the  soil  by  the  loess 
deposits.  This  loess  formation  con- 
sists of  fine  dust,  blown  from  the  steppes 
of  Central  Asia  and  covering  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  the 
northern  part  of  China  Proper  to  a 
depth  of  from  ten  to  a  thousand  feet. 

The  final  cause  of  the  fertility  of  China  is 
its  intensive  cultivation.  The  land  is  di- 
vided among  the  people  more  fully  than 
the  land  of  any  other  nation  on  earth.  In  the 
southern  and  middle  portions  of  China,  the 
fields  apparently  do  not  average  more  than 
two  acres  each,  and  in  Northern  China  they 
probably  do  not  average  more  than  three 
or  four  acres.  These  small  farms  are  cul- 
itivated  with  the  greatest  possible  thor- 
oughness. In  a  word,  the  Chinese  are 
gardeners  rather  than  farmers ;  and  I  have 
seen  field  after  field  in  succession  in  which 
I  could  not  detect  a  single  weed. 

As  the  result  of  these  five  causes — trop- 
ical climate,  immense  plains,  irrigation,  the 


12  China  and  Methodism. 

enrichment  of  the  soil  by  artificial  fertilizers 
and  the  loess  formation,  and  intensive  cul- 
tivation— great  portions  of  the  twenty-two 
provinces  yield  twice  as  much  per  acre  as 
the  fertile  fields  of  Iowa  and  Illinois;  and 
China  Proper  yields  the  largest  har- 
vests of  any  country  upon  the  face  of 
the  globe. 

For  the  statistics  quoted  below  as  to  the 
population  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  I  have 
relied  upon  that  most  conservative  English 
publication,    the    Statesmen's    Year-Book, 

and  it  in  turn  has  relied  upon  the 
The  People  reports  sent  in  by  the  governors  at 

the  time  of  the  assessment  of  the 
Boxer  indemnity.  As  the  distribution  of 
the  Boxer  assessment  was  based  on  popu- 
lation and  the  number  reported  determined 
the  proportion  which  each  province  must 
pay,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  fi^'ures  are 
beyond  the  actual  population  of  the  sev- 
eral provinces.  Besides,  the  six  years  that 
have  followed  the  Boxer  Uprising  have 
been  years  of  peace  and  plenty,  and  the 
population  has  increased  during  that  pe- 
riod. 


Land  and  People. 


13 


PROVINCES. 

Sq.  Miles. 
Anhwei  or  Nganhwei,  .    .    54.810  . 

Chekiang, 36,670  . 

Chili, 115,800  . 

Chinese  Turkestan,    .    .    .  550,000  . 

Fengtien, 50,000  . 

Fukien, 46,320  . 

Heilungkiang, 140,000  . 

Honan, 67,940  . 

Hunan, 83,380  . 

Hupeh, 71410  . 

Kansuh, 125,450  . 

Kiangsi, 69,480  . 

Kiangsu, 38,600  . 

Kirin, 90,000  . 

Kwangsi, 77,200  . 

Kwangtung,      99,97o  • 

Kweichow, 67,160  . 

Shansi, 81,830  . 

Shantung, 55,97o  • 

Shensi, 75,270  . 

Szechuen, 218,480  . 

Yunnan, 146,680  . 

Total,  China  Proper,   .  2,362,410  . 

DEPENDENCIES. 

Mongolia, 1,367,000  . 

Tibet, 738,000  . 

Total  Dependencies,    .  2,105,000  . 
Grand      total      Chinese 
Empire, 4,467,410  , 


Population. 
23,670,000 
11,581,000 
20,937,000 

1,200,000 
12,000,000 
22,876,540 

2,000,000 
35,316,000 
22,169,000 
35,280,000 
10,385,000 
26,532,000 
13,980,000 

7,000,000 

5,142,000 
31,865,000 

7,650,000 
12,200,000 
38,248,000 

8,450,000 
68,725,000 
12,324,000 


429,532,000 

5,000,000 
3,500,000 

8,500,000 
,  438,032,000 


14  China  and  Methodism. 

If  we  include  the  whole  empire,  the  pop- 
ulation averages  only  ninety-eight  to  the 
square  mile.  For  China  Proper,  the  aver- 
age population  per  square  mile  is  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-two,  while  the  average  pop- 
ulation of  Germany  is  two  hundred  and 
nine,  and  of  Great  Britain  three  hundred 
and.  fifteen.  Great  Britain,  however  sus- 
tains her  population  largely  by  manufp.c- 
turing  goods  and  selling  them  to  people 
of  other  lands  and  receiving  their  products 
in  return,  while  the  population  of  China 
lives  almost  wholly  off  the  land.  When  one 
remembers  that  the  Chinese  produce  two  or 
three  crops  per  year  over  three-fourths  of 
China  Proper,  and  that  they  are  living  on 
much  less  food  per  man  than  the  English- 
man consumes,  the  figures  for  the  popula- 
tion are  not  unreasonable.  The  Maritime 
Customs'  report  for  1905  for  the  coast  and 
river  provinces,  supplemented  by  the  report 
of  the  Statesmen's  Year-Book  for  the  in- 
terior provinces,  make  the  population  oi 
the  empire  451,000,000.  Sir  Robert  Hart 
and  Dr.  Arthur  Smith  are  confident 
that  the  twenty-two  provinces  can  sus- 
tain a  very  much  larger  population  than 


Land  and  People.  IS 

they  maintain  at  present.  Indeed,  any  one 
who  realizes  that  only  the  agricultural  re- 
sources of  the  country  are  thus  far  devel- 
oped, and  that  the  mining  and  manufactur- 
ing resources  of  the  empire  yet  to  be  de- 
veloped are  almost  boundless,  will  not 
hastily  deny  Ernst  Faber's  prophecy  that 
the  Chinese  Empire  may  yet  sustain  double 
her  present  population. 

We  have  thus  tried  to  furnish  such  a 
view  of  the  land  as  will  enable  our  readers 
to  comprehend  the  immense  population  of 
the  empire.  In  closing,  let  us  catch  one 
more  glimpse  of  this  virile  and  fertile  race. 
Imagine  a  procession  of  Chinese  marching 
by  a  reviewing  stand.  Let  them  pass  at 
the  rate  of  thirty  per  minute.  This  will  give 
you  two  seconds  to  impress  the  image  of 
each  Chinese  upon  your  mindan9  to  offeTa, 
prayer  for  the  salvation  of  that  pilgrim, 
journeying  to  the  eternal  land.  Let  the  pro- 
cession  continue  through  rain  and  sunshine, 
cold  and  heat,  through  work  days  and  holi- 
days ;  change  the  watchers  each  eight  hours, 
and  let  the  procession  continue  day  and 
night ;  and  how  long  will  these  watchers  re- 
quire to  review  the  population  of  China? 


16  China  and  Methodism. 

Passing  the  reviewing  stand  at  the  rate 
of  thirty  per  minute,  the  Chinese  pro- 
cession will  continue  year  after  year,  dec- 
ade after  decade,  generation  after  gener- 
ation, century  after  century,  millennium  af- 
ter millennium, — "What,''  one  exclaims, 
"will  the  procession  never  end?''  Not  un- 
til the  end  of  time,  so  far  as  mortals  can 
now  foresee,  because  thirty  per  minute  is 
about  the  rate  at  which  this  abounding 
race  is  multiplying.  At  this  rate  of  march, 
therefore,  the  procession  is  literally  an  end- 
less one. 


CHAPTER  II. 

R^IylGlONS. 

A  glimpse  at  the  religious  practices  pre- 
vailing among  the  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  million  people  in  China  will  help  us  to 
understand  the  need  of  Christianity  in  the 
empire.  Perhaps  I  can  give  American  read- 
ers in  the  brief  space  at  my  command 
a  better  conception  of  the  religion  of  China 
by  omitting  entirely  the  conclusions  formed 
from  a  study  of  six  or  seven  volumes  upon 
the  religions  of  the  empire,  and  describing 
the  religious  life  of  the  people  as  it  im- 
pressed itself  upon  me. 

As  soon  as  a  Chinese  boy  is  old  enough 
to  stand  alone,  he  is  taught  to  hold  his 
hands  together  in  front  of  him  and  to  wor- 
ship before  the  tablets  of  his  more  recent 
ancestors   kept   in  the  home.     A 

where  the  tablets   of  the   earlier 
ancestors  of  himself  and  the  clan  to  which 
he  belongs  are  kept,  and  there  joins  in  their 
2  17 


18  China  and  Methodism. 

worship.  Parents  in  China  no  more  leave 
their  children  to  choose  their  religion  than 
to  choose  the  language  they  will  learn.  An- 
cestors are  worshiped  by  bowing,  kneel- 
ing, kotowing,  or  touching  the  head  to  the 
floor,  by  prayers,  and  those  who  have  re- 
cently died  are  offered  food  and  drink. 

As  soon  as  a  boy  is  able  to  walk,  he  is 
taken  by  his  father  or  mother  to  the 
shrines  which  line  most  roads  or  to  the 
temples  in  villages  and  towns,  and  he  joins 
in  worship  there.  This  worship  consists 
in  burning  incense,  in  praying,  and  some- 
times in  offering  food  and  drink. 

Chinese  religion  also  enters  to  some  ex- 
tent into  the  celebration  of  the  two  chief 
events  in  life — marriage  and  death.  As  the 
child  is  not  supposed  to  have  a  soul  until 
it  is  two  years  old,  no  religious  celebration 
attends  its  birth.  At  marriage  the  bride- 
groom and  the  bride  worship  his  ances- 
tors, heaven  and  earth,  and  spirits  which 
they  may  deem  it  wise  to  placate;  and  by 
this  act  the  bride  renounces  her  own  fam- 
ily and  becomes  a  worshiper  at  the  shrine 
of  her  husband.  A  dying  person  is  clothed 
in  his  best  garments,  that  he  may  appear 


Religions.  19 

properly  in  the  next  world.  A  small  piece 
of  money  is  often  placed  in  the  mouth  of 
the  dead  person  to  pay  his  passage  across 
the  river,  and  sometimes  a  cake  is  put  into 
one  hand  of  the  dying  person  and  a  stick 
into  the  other,  in  order  that  the  spirit  may 
throw  a  sop  to  the  dog  which  is  said  to  op- 
pose the  passage,  and  in  case  the  cake  does 
not  engage  the  dog's  attention,  that  he  may 
drive  him  off  with  the  stick.  Hideous 
music  is  kept  up  in  the  house  after  death 
in  order  to  drive  away  the  evil  spirits ;  and 
at*  the  funeral  paper  money,  paper  houses, 
paper  furniture,  etc.,  are  burned,  which  are 
supposed  to  be  transformed  by  this  process 
into  a  spiritual  form  and  to  serve  the  de- 
parted in  the  next  world.  After  death,  the 
Taoist  or  Buddhist  priest  is  consulted  as  to 
a  suitable  place,  a  suitable  time,  and  a  suit- 
able position  of  the  body  for  burial. 

The  Chinese  stand  in  mortal  dread  of 
"Feng-shui"  or  the  spirits  of  the  wind  and 
the  water,  which  are  offended  unless  bodies 
are  buried,  houses  erected,  roads  laid  out, 
walls  built,  etc.,  etc.,  according  to  the  di- 
rections of  the  priests. 

Each  person  is  supposed  to  have  three 


20  China  and  Methodism. 

souls,  one  of  which  goes  to  the  next  world, 
which  the  Buddhists  teach  will  be  good  or 
bad  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body;  one  of  which  resides  in  the  tablet 
of  the  deceased,  which  is  kept  in  the  home 
until  the  accumulation  leads  to  its  removal 
to  the  hall  of  tablets;  and  one  of  which 
lingers  near  the  body  at  the  grave.  In  case 
of  any  neglect  of  the  spirit  which  abides  in 
the  tablet  or  at  the  grave,  that  spirit  suiters 
torment  itself  and  inflicts  torment  in  the 
way  of  disease,  floods,  accidents,  etc.,  upon 
the  living.  Hence  the  chief  desire  of  every 
family  in  China  is  to  have  a  son  to  perform 
the  ancestral  rites,  as  according  to  Chinese 
theology,  these  rites  can  be  fittingly  per- 
formed only  by  a  son.  In  case  a  wife  does 
not  bear  her  husband  a  son  within  a  few 
years  after  marriage,  then  the  husband,  on 
the  command  of  his  parents,  or  of  his  own 
volition,  selects  a  second  wife.  Inasmuch 
as  the  whole  clan  may  suffer  from  the  lack 
of  a  son  to  perform  the  ancestral  rites, 
public  sentiment  not  only  indorses,  but  fre- 
quently demands  the  possession  of  two 
wives  upon  the  part  of  the  husband.  In 
case  the  husband  is  not  fortunate  enough 


Religions.  21 

to  secure  a  son  through  two  or  more  wives, 
he  will  ask  a  son  from  some  other  mem- 
ber of  the  clan,  or  else  buy  a  son,  who  at 
once  severs  all  connection  to  the  family  to 
which  he  belongs  by  birth  and  becomes  a 
member  of  the  family  of  his  new  father. 
One  universal  form  of  religion  in  China, 
therefore,  is  ancestor  worship. 

In  addition  to  ancestor  worship  and  per- 
haps forming  an  integral  part  of  the  same 
religious  system  is  animism  or  a  belief  in 
the  spirits  which  inhabit  wood,  wa- 

nimism  ^^^^  rocks,  rivcrs,  mountains,  etc. 
In  Shensi  literally  thousands  of  trees  have 
streamers  fastened  to  them  indicating  that 
people  have  been  healed  of  their  diseases  or 
helped  by  praying  to  the  spirit  inhabiting 
the  tree.  Indeed,  I  have  never  seen  a  build- 
ing in  process  of  erection  in  China  without 
tufts  of  straw  tied  to  the  tops  of  the  poles, 
sustaining  the  scaffolding,  in  order  to  pla- 
cate the  spirits.  The  Chinese  believe  that  the 
spirits  are  everywhere  around  us.  Some  of 
them  are  supposed  to  be  beneficent,  but  the 
vast  majority  of  them  inflict  evils  upon  man- 
kind, and  any  one  of  them  may  easily  be- 


22  China  and  Methodism. 

come  dangerous.  One  is  impressed  with  the 
horrible  forms  and  features  of  the  images 
of  almost  all  of  their  gods  in  the  temples. 
The  only  two  divinities  with  placid  features 
are  Buddha  and  the  Goddess  of  Mercy,  and 
the  Chinese  believe  that  it  is  so  difficult 
to  arouse  these  to  an  active  interest  in  their 
affairs  that  I  have  seen  stone  images  of 
Buddha  considerably  worn  by  the  pound- 
ing of  worshipers  to  awaken  his  interest. 
The  vast  majority  of  Chinese  believe  that 
the  griping  and  the  pains  which  attend  dis- 
ease are  due  to  the  literal  gripping  of  the 
vitals  by  some  evil  spirit,  and  the  common 
practice  of  medicine  among  them  is  an 
attempt,  by  horrible  noises,  by  terrible  de- 
coctions to  be  taken  internally,  by  pricking 
the  body  with  needles,  cutting  it  with  knives 
and  burning  it  with  fire,  to  drive  out  the 
evil  spirit  which  has  temporarily  taken  po- 
session  of  the  body  and  which  is  causing 
the  pain.  Few  streets  in  China  are  built 
straight,  because  the  spirits  are  supposed  to 
fly  in  straight  lines,  and  they  can  not  find 
their  way  through  crooked  streets.  A  Chi- 
nese house  is  surrounded,  when  the  Chi- 
naman is  able  to  afford  the  luxury,  with  a 


Religions.  23 

high  wall  without  any  openings  in  order  to 
keep  out  the  spirits,  and  a  second  blank 
wall  is  built  three  or  four  feet  in  front 
of  the  gate  so  that  in  case  a  spirit  is  fly- 
ing toward  the  inclosure  when  the  entrance 
is  open,  he  will  strike  the  wall  in  front 
and  not  find  the  gateway.  The  spirit  is 
supposed  to  be  unable  to  turn  a  corner. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  boys  in  China  wear 
at  least  one  ear-ring  in  order  to  make  the 
spirits  think  that  they  are  girls  and  hence  of 
no  value  to  their  parents.  It  is  supposed 
that  the  spirits  are  too  stupid  to  look  at 
both  ears,  and  that  one  ear-ring  will  de- 
ceive them.  Possibly  the  similarity  in 
dress  between  boys  and  girls  and  between 
men  and  women  is  due  to  the  same  super- 
stition. I  judge  that  the  Chinese  are  to- 
day in  substantially  the  same  state  of  su- 
perstition as  were  our  ancestors  when  they 
originated  that  form  of  church  architecture 
which  represents  the  head  and  part  of  the 
body  of  huge  monsters  projecting  from 
the  churches  in  the  form  of  gargoyles,  etc., 
striving  to  escape  from  the  place  where 
Jesus  is  enthroned.  When  I  asked  several 
Chinese  leaders  of  our  Foochow  Confer- 


24  China  and  Methodism. 

ence  what  proportion  of  our  membership 
believe  in  the  presence  to-day  in  China  of 
evil  spirits  similar  to  those  portrayed  in 
the  New  Testament,  they  replied  that  they 
supposed  more  than  half  of  them  had  be- 
come Christians  through  their  belief  that 
Jesus  could  cast  out  evil  spirits  and  deliver 
them  from  their  power.  Mountains,  rivers, 
gulfs,  rapids,  whirlpools,  etc.,  are  the  favor- 
ite haunts  of  spirits,  and  especially  of  the 
great  dragon.  If  one  could  see  the  num- 
ber of  people  throughout  China  beating 
upon  gongs  and  drums  and  every  resound- 
ing object  and  shouting  in  wild  excitement 
at  the  time  of  an  eclipse  to  keep  the  dragon 
from  swallowing  the  moon  and  the  sun; 
if  one  could  realize  the  horror  among  the 
Chinese  at  our  digging  into  mountains  for 
coal  or  making  cuts  through  hills  for  rail- 
ways, lest  we  touch  the  back  of  the  great 
dragon  and  produce  an  earthquake,  flood, 
or  some  other  visitation  of  nature,  he  would 
realize  that  the  symbol  on  the  Chinese  flag 
represents  no  mythical  being,  but  one  of 
the  most  real  and  terrible  monsters  which 
the  Chinese  imagination  can  conceive.  One 
can  understand  the  poverty  of  the  Chinese 


Religions.  25 

when  he  learns  that  there  are  millions  upon 
millions,  especially  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  empire,  who  live  on  two  to  four  cents 
per  day  for  each  member  of  the  household ; 
and  one  can  understand  the  superstition  of 
the  Chinese  when  he  learns  that  a  people, 
often  suffering  from  insufficient  food  and 
clothing,  nevertheless  spend  from  ten  to 
twenty  per  cent  of  their  income  in  the  dis- 
charge of  various  rites  for  the  dead,  in  of- 
ferings to  the  priests,  in  idol  worship,  and 
in  deeds  of  charity  to  secure  heavenly 
merit.  It  is  thus  seen  that  ancestor  wor- 
ship and  animism,  or  the  belief  that  many 
natural  objects  are  inhabited  by  spirits 
which  must  be  placated,  constitute  the  pre- 
vailing  religion    of    China. 

Nor  is  the  superstition  connecte'd  with 
ancestor  worship  and  animism  confined  to 
the  Ignorant.  The  worship  of  the  gods  of 
agriculture,  of  rain,  etc.,  by  the  emperor, 
his  ministers,  and  the  viceroys  at  the  spring- 
time; the  drinking  of  the  blood  of  a  fa- 
mous robber  last  fall  by  the  viceroy  of 
the  two  Kwang  provinces  in  order  that  he 
might  acquire  his  bravery;  the  killing  last 
year  of  the  favorite  slave    of    the    dying 


26  China  and  Methodism. 

daughter  of  another  viceroy  in  order  that 
the  slave  might  accompany  the  dying  girl 
to  the  next  world  and  continue  to  minister 
to  her  there;  the  refilling  of  a  deep  cut 
made  for  a  road  because  the  geomancer 
said  it  disturbed  the  dragon  and  was 
the  cause  of  poor  crops, — these  and  other 
examples  may  be  given  to  prove  that  even 
the  leaders  of  the  empire  are  the  slaves  of 
superstition.  During  the  floods  in  Tientsin 
in  1894,  a  snake  took  refuge  in  a  temple; 
and  Li  Hung  Chang,  the  Bismarck  of  China, 
publicly  worshiped  it  as  the  embodiment 
of  the  dragon. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that 
Buddha  and  the  Goddess  of  Mercy  are  be- 
lieved by  the  Chinese  to  be  benevolent ;  and 
that  part  of  their  ancestor  worship  doubt- 
less arises  from  their  love  of  their  parents. 
But  upon  the  whole,  my  observation  and  in- 
quiries among  the  Chinese  lead  me  to  the 
conviction  that  they  think  the  good  spirits 
will  serve  them  without  offerings,  while 
the  bad  spirits  demand  offerings  to  placate 
them.  At  least  one  sees  tenfold  as  much 
expenditure  of  time  and  effort  and  money 
in  placating  evil  spirits  as  in  worshiping 


Religions.  27 

the  good  spirits.  One  can  not  travel  in 
China  with  eyes  and  ears  open  without  re- 
aHzing  the  statement  of  Paul  in  First  Co- 
rinthians X,  19-23,  that  idol  worship  has  be- 
come in  Asia,  as  it  had  become  in  Europe, 
demon  worship.  The  Bible  furnishes  a 
striking  illustration  of  a  very  predominant 
trait  of  human  nature  in  mentioning  fear 
as  the  first  feeling  arising  in  the  human 
heart  on  man's  contact  with  the  superna- 
tural. One  is  almost  humiliated  in  reading 
that  fear  is  the  first  emotion  which  arose 
even  in  the  heart  of  Mary  at  her  first  sight 
of  Gabriel.  The  corruption  of  human  na- 
ture and  the  fear  which  sin  engenders  has 
led  the  Chinese  to  turn  the  spirits  which 
they  worship  into  demons  as  the  Corinthi- 
ans had  done  before  them.  "What  say  I 
then,"  says  Paul  "that  a  thing  sacrificed 
to  idols  is  anything,  or  that  an  idol  is  any- 
thing? But  I  say  that  the  things  which 
the  Gentiles  sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  to  de- 
mons and  not  to  God ;  I  would  not  that  ye 
should  have  communion  with  demons.  Ye 
can  not  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  the 
cup  of  demons.    Ye  can  not  partake  of  the 


28  China  and  Methodism. 

table  of  the  Lord  and    o£    the    table    of 
demons." 

Summing  up  my  first  impressions  of  Chi- 
nese worship,  therefore,  I  should  say  that 
while  the  Chinese  are  not  spiritual,  they 
are  full  of  spiritualism ;  and  that  the  spirits 
which  they  worship  have  become  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  demons  and  not  angels. 
While  the  Roman  Catholics  have  shown  far 
greater  willingness  to  adopt,  or  at  least  to 
tolerate  the  heathen  customs  of  the  peoples 
whom  they  evangelize  than  have  the 
Protestants,  nevertheless  they  have  mani- 
fested real  insight  into  Chinese  religion  and 
displayed  real  strength  in  steadfastly  hold- 
ing for  the  last  two  hundred  years  that  an- 
cestor worship  is  idolatry.  All  Protestant 
missionaries  respect  the  learning  and  the 
character  of  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin.  But 
when  at  the  Shanghai  Conference  of  1890 
he  proposed  that  Protestant  missionaries 
tolerate  or  modify  ancestor  worship,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  an  expression  of  affection 
and  reverence  for  the  dead,  he  found  no  sup- 
porters in  the  large  and  progressive  body 
of  missionaries  there  assembled.  If  idol- 
atry were  simply  the  worship  of  God  un- 


Religions.  29 

der  a  mistaken  name,  it  would  not  be  harm- 
ful to  the  Chinese  and  it  might  not  be  worth 
the  effort  and  money  of  Christians  to  at- 
tempt to  overthrow  it.  But  idolatry  has 
proved  with  them,  as  perhaps  with  all  other 
nations,  to  be  demon  worship.  So  deep  is 
the  conviction  of  the  Chinese  that  the 
powers  of  the  supernatural  world  are 
evil  and  not  good,  that  their  strongest  de- 
sire is  to  be  wholly  delivered  from  super- 
natural influences.  This  accounts  for  the 
agnostic  teachings  of  Laotse  and  Confucius, 
and  explains  the  Chinese  tendency  toward 
agnosticism  and  materialism.  Both  of  these 
forms  of  unbelief  afford  temporary  relief 
from  the  superstitions  which  they  supplant, 
though  in  the  end  they  leave  the  people  even 
less  open  to  the  gospel  than  the  strong  be- 
lief in  the  supernatural,  which  is  perverted 
into  superstition.  The  incredible  part  of  the 
gospel  to  the  Chinese  is  that  God  is  love. 
They  all  accept  the  missionary's  announce- 
ment of  the  penalties  of  the  law  and  readily 
believe  in  the  missionary's  warning  in  re- 
gard to  future  punishment.  But  that  "God 
so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on 


30  China  and  Methodism. 

Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life,"  is  beyond  belief.  It  seems  liter- 
ally too  good  to  be  true.  I  myself  never  so 
fully  icalized  the  meaning  of  the  gospel  as 
"good  news"  as  since  spending  the  last  two 
years  in  this  cellar  of  heathenism  filled  with 
the  darkness  and  made  terrible  by  the  hob- 
goblins and  the  demons  with  which  the  sin- 
ful imagination  of  the  Chinese  have  filled 
their  every-day  world. 

Lack  of  space  forbids  the  description 
of  Taoism,  Confucianism,  and  Buddhism. 
I  need  only  say  that  while  possibly  God 
may  have  designed  Confucianism  to 
serve  like  the  Old  Testament  as  a  law  to 
bring  these  countless  millions  to  Christ, 
the  vast  majority  of  them  have  used  it,  as 
the  vast  majority  of  Jews  used  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, to  develop  a  Pharisaism  which  en- 
ables them  to  dispense  with  the  gospel; 
while  God  may  have  sent  them  Buddha, 
like  a  John  the  Baptist,  as  a  forerunner  of 
the  gospel,  they  have  turned  Buddha  into  a 
substitute  for  Christ,  and  have  further  de- 
graded Buddhism  into  the  grossest  super- 
stition ;  and  Taoism  has  become  so  degrad- 
ing a  superstition  that  its  priests  and  vo- 


Religions.  31 

taries  now  receive  only  contempt  from  the 
intelligent  Chinese.  If  ever  there  was  a 
scientific  demonstration  by  experiment  of 
the  necessity  of  the  gospel,  not  only  for 
eternal,  but  for  temporal  salvation,  that  dem- 
onstration is  furnished  in  a  learned  class 
which  is  the  most  corrupt  of  any  official 
class  on  earth,  and  in  four  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  million  people,  after  two  thou- 
sand years  of  Confucianism  and  Buddhism 
and  Taoism,  still  in  slavery  to  the  grossest 
superstitions. 

It  has  been  established  that  Zoroastrian- 
ism  was  introduced  into  China  in  the  early 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  and  Mani- 
chaeism  later;  but  both  were  absorbed  by 
the  Chinese  people.  The  introduction  of 
Mohammedanism  occurred  during  the 
seventh  century.  Mohammedanism  has  its 
largest  following  in  the  northwestern  por- 
tion of  the  empire,  and  it  has  once  or  twice 
threatened  the  peace  of  the  government  in 
that  region,  especially  in  the  dependency 
of  East  Turkestan.  The  Mohammedans  in 
China  to-day  probably  exceed  ten  millions. 
Owing  to  the  rigid  rule  that  the  Koran 
must  not  be  translated,   and  to  the   fact 


32  China  and  Methodism. 

that  the  Mohammedans  dare  not  take  the 
sword  in  China  to  propagate  their  faith, 
Mohammedanism,  according  to  S.  Wells 
Williams,  has  not  made  the  least  impres- 
sion on  the  polytheism  of  the  empire,  and 
has  not  had  the  least  influence  in  lifting  the 
morals  of  the  people.  The  Jews  entered 
China  probably  during  the  Han  Dynasty, 
B.  C.  202  to  A.  D.  221.  Like  the  Koran, 
the  Old  Testament  was  not  translated  into 
the  Chinese,  and  so  far  from  modifying  the 
religion  of  the  empire,  the  Jews,  like  the 
Zoroastrians  and  the  Manichaeans,  have 
been  absorbed  by  the  Chinese.  Indeed,  the 
absorption  of  the  Zoroastrians  and  the 
Manichaeans  and  the  Jews,  the  total  lack 
of  influence  of  Mohammedanism,  the  prac- 
tical transformation  of  Buddhism  into  a 
Chinese  form  of  animistic  worship,  indi- 
cate that  the  Chinese  are  probably  the 
strongest  race  with  whom  alien  religions 
have  thus  far  come  in  contact. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Christianity  in  the;  Empire). 

The  work  of  the  Nestorian  Christians 
can  probably  be  traced  back  to  505  A.  D. 
The  famous  Nestorian  tablet,  found  at  Sian 
j^       .       or  Si-Ngan,  the  capitol  of  Shensi, 

Chris-      in  1625,  was  erected  in  781,  and 

tianity  contains  the  names  of  five  em- 
perors who  embraced  Christianity.  The 
Nestorian  type  of  faith  flourished  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  imtil  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, when  the  loss  of  early  piety  led  to  the 
transformation  of  many  of  the  churches 
into  heathen  temples,  although  the  faith 
lingered  for  several  centuries  later. 

Roman  Catholic  Christianity  was  intro- 
duced into  China  in  1246,  and  a  settled  mis- 
sion established  in  the  empire  in  1288  by 
John  Montecorvino.  It  is  said^  that  at  his 
death,  in  1328,  he  had  enrolled 
Roman     thirty  thousand  converts.    It  is  af- 

L/athoIicism  -        .  ^    .      i  .       i*  ht 

fectmg  to  read  m  his  diary:       It 
is  now  twelve  years  since  I  have  heard  from 
3  33 


34  China  and  Methodism. 

the  west;''  and  it  is  extremely  interesting 
to  read  further  on,  "I  have  translated  the 
whole  New  Testament  and  the  Psalms  of 
David."  During  the  three  centuries  of 
Mongol  rule  in  China,  there  were  many 
flourishing  Christian  communities  in  north- 
ern and  central  parts  of  the  empire.  But 
the  purity  of  the  faith  was  gradually  lost 
through  the  introduction  of  image  worship, 
and  on  the  establishment  of  the  Ming  Dy- 
nasty, in  1368,  the  Roman  Catholic  con- 
verts were  largely  absorbed  into  Moham- 
medanism and  Buddhism. 

The  second  period  of  Roman  Catholicism 
extends  from  1 582  to  1 736.  It  was  inaugu- 
rated by  Francis  Xavier,  who  was  forbid- 
den to  enter  China,  and  died  on  St.  John's 
Island,  off  the  southern  shore  of  the  em- 
pire, crying,  ''O  Rock,  Rock,  Rock,  when 
wilt  thou  break?"  One  of  Xavier's  com- 
panions, Matteo  Ricci,  however,  succeeded 
in  entering  China  in  1582  in  the  garb  of  a 
Buddhist  priest,  and  he  set  up  an  image  of 
Christ  for  worship,  thus  by  his  dress  and  his 
conduct  concealing  his  object  and  indicating 
that  he  was  an  idolater.  After  twenty-one 
years   of  effort,   Ricci   and   certain  com- 


Christianity  in  the  Empire.       35 

panions  finally  reached  Peking  through  fol- 
lowing the  policy  as  stated  by  Abbe  Hue, 
"that  the  philosopher  would  make  more  im- 
pression than  the  priest  on  minds  so  skeptic 
and  imbued  with  literary  conceit/'  The 
first  book  translated  by  Ricci,  with  the  aid 
of  the  Chinese,  was  Euclid,  and  by  1636 
the  Catholic  fathers  had  translated  three 
hundred  and  forty  books,  some  of  them 
religious,  but  most  of  them  relating  to 
natural  philosophy  and  mathematics.  Un- 
der the  leadership  of  Ricci  and  Schaal  and 
Verbiest,  the  three  ablest  leaders  of  the 
Catholics  during  the  second  period,  and  by 
the  work  of  the  five  hundred  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries with  them,  the  Church  won  large 
apparent  victories.  Her  triumphs,  however, 
were  due  to  the  substitution  of  image  wor- 
ship for  Christian  experience,  to  permission 
given  their  converts  to  continue  the  worship 
of  Confucius  and  of  ancestors,  to  the  exer- 
cise of  civil  authority  for  the  protection  of 
their  converts,  and  to  their  introduction  of 
western  learning  into  the  empire.  They  re- 
lied mainly  upon  their  catechists  for  the 
conversion  and  instruction  of  their  follow- 
ers.   But  despite  the  defects  in  their  work, 


36  China  and  Methodism. 

some  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  part  of  which 
was  orginally  translated  by  Montecorvino 
and  a  considerable  knowledge  of  Christian 
doctrine  through  the  translation  of  Chris- 
tian books  reached  the  Chinese  and  devel- 
oped a  body  of  followers  who  in  times  of 
persecution  laid  down  their  lives  for  the 
Church  and  for  the  Church's  Master. 

The  Franciscans  and  Dominicans  were 
drawn  to  the  empire  during  the  second  pe- 
riod by  the  apparent  success  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  bitter  feuds  arose  between  the  Jesuits 
and  themselves.  The  Dominican  Morales 
secured  the  decision  of  Innocent  X  in  1645 
that  ancestor  worship  is  idolatry ;  the  Jesuits 
secured  a  reversal  of  the  decision  by  Pope 
Alexander  VII  in  1658;  but  in  1704 
Clement  XI  condemned  ancestor  worship 
and  the  worship  of  Confucius  by  a  decision 
undoubtedly  in  accordance  with  the  facts, 
a  decision  which  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  at  large  cost  to  her  prestige  and 
numbers,  has  consistently  maintained  down 
to  the  present  day.  Owing  to  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Jesuits  in  political  affairs 
during  the  breakup  of  the  Ming  Dynasty, 
about   1616,  they  lost  their    influence    at 


Christianity  in  the  Empire.       37 

court,  and  the  Church  lost  much  of  its 
strength  throughout  the  empire.  Never- 
theless the  Church  enjoyed  another  brief 
period  of  prosperity  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  from  1700  to  17 18 
a  good  survey  and  map  of  the  Chinese  em- 
pire were  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
Jesuits. 

The  most  noted  external  events,  in  the 
history  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
China  during  the  last  two  centuries  have 
been  the  securing  of  access  to  the  empire, 
chiefly  through  the  influence  of  Protestant 
powers,  the  securing  of  the  Edict  of  Tol- 
eration by  the  treaty  between  China  and  the 
United  States  in  1858,  and  the  securing  by 
I'rance  through  pressure  brought  upon 
China  in  1899  of  a  treaty  granting  all  Cath- 
olic missionaries  civil  authority  in  the  em- 
pire. The  Missiones  Catholic ae  for  1898 
reports  the  total  number  of  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries at  759 ;  of  baptized  Christians,  in- 
cluding children,  at  616,500,  with  thirty- 
four  colleges  and  thirty-four  convents. 
Owing  to  the  weakness  of  the  central  gov- 
ernment in  the  empire,  China  has  furnished 
an  easy  field  for  the  maintenance  of  the 


38  China  and  Methodism. 

Roman  Catholic  claim  of  civil  as  well  as 
ecclesiastical  authority.  Indeed,  the  civil 
power  is  so  grossly  corrupt,  the  decisions  of 
the  civil  authorities  are  often  so  unjust  and 
cruel,  and  the  adherents  of  Christianity  are 
so  frequently  selected  for  persecution  by 
the  authorities  in  the  hope  of  extorting 
bribes  that  even  Protestant  missionaries 
have  felt  tempted  at  times  to  exercise  civil 
authority  in  the  interest  of  their  converts. 
But  the  practical  impossibility  of  getting  at 
the  real  facts  in  Chinese  lawsuits  and  the 
long  line  of  historical  abuses  arising  from 
the  exercise  of  civil  authority  by  the  Church 
in  Europe  and  the  New  Testament  example 
of  Christians  enduring  persecution  with- 
out an  appeal  to  the  civil  authorities  led  the 
Protestant  missionaries  unanimously  to  re- 
ject the  Chinese  offer  of  civil  authority  to 
themselves,  following  the  extortion  of  sim- 
ilar authority  from  the  Chinese  Government 
by  France  for  the  French  Catholic  priests. 
The  Archbishop  has  the  title  and  the  honors 
of  a  Viceroy,  the  Bishop  those  of  a  Gov- 
ernor, the  Priest  those  of  a  prefect  or  ruler 
of  a  large  district,  while  the  native  priests 
and  the  native  Christians  are  responsible  for 


Christianity  in  the  Empire.       39 

their  entire  conduct  to  the  foreign  priests 
and  bishops.  In  a  word,  the  French  Cath- 
olics have  demanded,  and  to  a  large  ex- 
tent have  secured,  extraterritoriality  for  all 
their  members  throughout  the  empire. 

The  interference  in  yamen  cases  by  the 
French  Catholics  concerns  all  Christians, 
because  the  Chinese  can  no  more  tell  the 
difference  between  an  Englishman  and  a 
Frenchman  than  Americans  can  tell  the  dif- 
ference between  a  Cantonese  and  Tientsin 
Chinaman.  Hence  in  the  recent  Nanchang 
riot,  caused  by  the  unwarranted  interfer- 
ence of  the  French  priests  with  the  action 
of  the  Chinese  courts  and  the  death  of  the. 
Chinese  magistrate  at  the  French  priest's 
home,  English  and  American  Protestants 
suffered  with  French  Catholics.  Surely  in 
the  interest  of  international  peace,  not  to 
speak  of  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  the  gov- 
ernments of  England  and  America  should 
ask  France  to  follow  her  action  in  sepa- 
rating Church  and  State  at  home  by  their 
separation  also  in  China.  Until  this  reform 
is  brought  about,  Protestant  missionaries 
owe  it  to  their  countries  and  to  their  own 
Churches,  as  well  as  to  the  Chinese,  to  com- 


40  China  and  Methodism. 

mend  heartily  the  truth  which  the  Roman 
CathoHcs  have  brought  to  China,  the  self- 
sacrifice  and  the  heroism  of  many  of  their 
missionaries  in  the  propagation  of  this  truth, 
and  the  heroism  of  the  Chinese  martyrs  who 
have  died  for  the  Catholic  as  well  as  the 
Protestant  faiths,  on  the  one  side ;  but,  upon 
the  other  side,  to  draw  the  line  distinctly 
between  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant 
view  of  the  right  of  the  Church  to  inter- 
fere in  civil  affairs  and  to  protest  earnestly 
against  the  use  of  earthly  weapons  for  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace. 

The  Greek  Catholic  Church  was  estab- 
lished in  Peking  in  1685,  and  the  faith  has 
continued  in  existence  in  the  empire  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  Greek  Church, 
however,  has  never  been  active  in  prose- 
cuting its  work,  and  has  to-day  only  a 
handful  of  converts.  It  is  not  a  force  to 
be  reckoned  with  in  the  empire. 

One  of  the  most  philosophical  Chinese 
Christians  said  half  musingly  last  year, 
"Why  if  Jehovah  is  the  God  of  all  the  earth 
has  He  passed  by  the  largest  nation  and  left 
it  century  after  century  without  the;  gos- 


Christianity  in  the  Empire.        41 

pel?  Will  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth 
do  right?"  After  musing  a  little  longer, 
he  added:  "When  the  Nestorians  came  to 
us  in  the  fifth  century  we  absorbed  them 
and  transformed  their  religion  into  heathen- 
ism. So  we  absorbed  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion  when  it  first  appeared  in  the  em- 
pire in  the  thirteenth  century ;  we  have  ab- 
sorbed Zoroastrianism  and  Manichaeism 
and  Judaism,  and  transformed  Mohammed- 
anism far  more  than  we  have  been  trans- 
formed by  it.  Possibly  God  has  been 
waiting  century  after  century  for  a  means 
strong  enough  to  transform  this  mighty 
empire.  Has  He  found  it  in  the  open  Bible 
and  the  purest  and  most  triumphant  type 
of  Christianity  thus  far  known  on  earth?" 
Protestant  Christian  Missions  in  China 
may  be  summed  up  under  five  periods : 
First,  the  pioneer  period,  between  1807  and 
1842,  inaugurated  by  Robert  Morrison,  who 
was  later  joined  by  William  Miller.  In 
18 14  Morrison  baptized  his  first  convert, 
Tsai  A-ko.  In  18 18  Morrison  and  Miller 
completed  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Chinese,  and  it  was  published  in  182 1  by 
the  East  India  Company.     Morrison  died 


42  China  and  Methodism. 

in  1834,  the  first  Protestant  missionary 
statesman  of  the  Chinese  empire.  Dur- 
ing the  first  period  of  thirty-five  years, 
two  of  the  eighteen  provinces  were  reached, 
but  only  six  converts  were  won. 

The  second  period,  1842  to  i860,  dates 
from  the  Treaty  of  Nanking  in  1842,  by 
which  the  five  treaty  ports  of  Canton, 
Amoy,  Foochow,  Ningpo,  and  Shanghai 
were  opened  to  foreign  trade  and  residence. 
Chinese  traditional  contempt  for  the  for- 
eigners had  been  turned  into  hatred  by  the 
war  with  Great  Britain,  closed  in  1842,  by 
which  the  opium  traffic  was  forced  upon 
the  country.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  at  the  close  of  the  second  period  in 
i860,  despite  the  fact  that  fifteen  additional 
societies  had  entered  the  field  and  the  mis- 
sionary force  had  increased  to  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty,  there  were  fewer  than  a 
thousand  Christians. 

The  third  period,  i860- 1877,  was  inaugu- 
rated by  the  Treaty  of  Tientsin,  enabling 
travelers  to  go  by  passport  to  any  part  of 
the  empire  and  establishing  religious  free- 
dom throughout  China.  Under  this  treaty 
the  missionaries  began  to  penetrate  to  the 


Christianity  in  the  Empire.       43 

interior.  The  report  of  the  Shanghai  Con- 
ference in  1877  showed  four  hundred  and 
thirteen  missionaries  in  China,  an  increase 
of  threefold,  and  eighteen  thousand  con- 
verts, an  increase  of  eighteen-fold. 

The  fourth  period  of  missionary  activity, 
1877  to  1900,  shows  an  increase  of  mission- 
aries from  473  to  2,785,  with  3,698  native 
workers  of  both  sexes.  The  number  of 
missionary  societies  had  risen  to  sixty-eight, 
all  of  the  eighteen  provinces  were  occupied, 
and  the  number  of  communicants  had  risen 
from  eighteen  thousand  to  one  hundred 
and  twelve  thousand. 

The  fifth  period  dates  from  1900  to  1907. 
It  was  inaugurated  by  the  Boxer  uprising, 
which  resulted  in  the  death  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty-six  Protestant  missionaries  and 
of  some  ten  thousand  Protestant  converts. 
At  first  it  seemed  that  the  results  of  a  cen- 
tury's struggle  for  the  evangelization  of 
the  empire  had  been  swept  away.  But, 
as  on  other  occasions,  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  has  proved  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
The  Protestant  Churches  have  not  only  re- 
gained the  losses  made  in  1900,  but  the 
number  of  missionaries  has  increased  from 


44  China  and  Methodism. 

2,785  to  3,241  and  the  number  of  converts, 
despite  the  loss  by  martyrdom,  has  in- 
creased from  112,000  to  substantially  150,- 
000. 

The  missionaries  in  China  constitute  so 
fully  a  common  brotherhood  that  the 
Protestant  missionaries  especially  through- 
out the  empire  stand  in  as  close  relations 
to  each  other  as  the  Methodist  preachers  in 
the  United  States.  It  seems  ungracious, 
therefore,  to  pass  by  their  work  with  this 
brief  reference  and  to  devote  an  entire 
chapter  to  the  work  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  I  could  take 
up  the  work  of  almost  any  other  Church  in 
China  and  present  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  in- 
spire that  Church  at  home  with  a  just  ad- 
miration for  the  heroic  service  of  her  mis- 
sionaries and  with  a  just  pride  in  the  splen- 
did results  which  they  have  achieved  in  the 
Chinese  Empire.  As,  however,  I  am  writ- 
ing to  secure  men  and  money  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  for  the  re-en- 
forcement of  our  work  in  China,  I  now 
pass  the  work  of  the  other  Churches  for  a 
larger,  but  wholly  incomplete,  portrayal  of 
the  work  of  our  own  missions. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MitTHODisT  Episcopai,  Church  in  China. 

Four  incidents  contributed  to  the  found- 
ing of  the  Methodist  Church  in  China. 
First,  the  Missionary  Lyceum  of  Wesleyan 

University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  in 
Opening    jg-^^  debated  the  question,  "What 

is  the  Most  Promising  Field  for 
a  Foreign  Mission  of  Our  Churgh?" 
China  was  strongly  advocated,  ^nd  as 
a  result  of  the  debate  a  committee 
was  formed  to  prepare  an  appeal  for 
opening  a  mission  in  that  land.  An  appeal 
was  published  in  The  Christian  Advocate, 
and  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  were 
raised  for  this  purpose.  Second,  Rev.  Jud- 
son  Dwight  Collins  graduated  in  1845  '^^ 
the  first  class  of  the  University  of  Mich- 
igan. Before  graduation  he  offered  him- 
self to  the  Missionary  Society  for  China. 
Upon  learning,  on  graduation,  from  Bishop 
Janes,  that  our  Church  had  no  mission  in 
45 


46  China  and  Methodism. 

China,  he  wrote  again,  asking  the  bishop 
to  secure  for  him  passage  before  the  mast 
on  the  first  vessel  SaiHng*  adding,  "My  own 
strong  arm  can  pull  me  to  China  and  sup- 
port me  after  I  get  there."  Third,  the  fore- 
sight of  the  Wesleyan  students  and  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Michigan  graduate  were 
re-enforced  by  a  statesmanlike  address  by 
President  Wilbur  Fisk,  of  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity, in  1846,  advocating  the  opening  of  a 
mission  in  China  by  our  Church.  Fourth, 
the  agitation  of  the  ten  years  culminated  in 
the  personal  sacrifice  of  Rev.  W.  C.  Palmer, 
D.  D.,  who  in  1846  subscribed  one  hundred 
dollars*  a  year  for  ten  years  for  the  found- 
ing of  a  mission  in  China,  and  largely  se- 
cured twenty-nine  other  persons  for  sim- 
ilar subscriptions.  Thus  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  undertook  the  evangel- 
ization of  a  fourth  of  the  human  race  on 
the  pledge  of  three  thousand  dollars  a  year 
for  ten  years,  with  most  of  the  pledges 
made  by  Methodist  preachers  who  had  no 
knowledge  of  where  their  next  year's  sup- 
port would  come  from.  It  was  the  day  of 
heroic  faith;  but  faith  triumphed.  In  1846 
China  was  placed  on  the  Hst  of  Methodist 


M.  E.  Church  In  China.  47 

Episcopal  missions,  and  Rev.  Judson 
Dwight  Collins  and  Rev.  Moses  C.  White, 
M.  D.,  were  accepted  as  the  first  mission- 
aries of  our  Church. 

Fortunately  our  Church,  in  her  mission- 
ary activities,  followed  the  Divine  order — 
namely,  beginning  from  Jerusalem.  Our 
first  mission  was  to  Indians  in  our  own 
land;  our  second  to  an  American  colony 
from  our  own  land,  then  settled  in  Liberia ; 
our  third  to  a  sister  republic  in  South 
America  under  Roman  Catholic  domina- 
tion, and  our  fourth  to  a  foreign  land — 
namely,  China.  Bishop  Coke,  one  hundred 
and  thirty-two  years  earlier,  leaping  over 
the  intermediate  steps,  had  summoned  our 
Church  to  found  a  foreign  mission  in  India 
and,  himself  leading  in  the  heroic  effort, 
had  died  at  sea  and  been  buried  in  the 
Indian  Ocean — only  an  ocean  is  large 
enough  for  fitting  sepulcher  of  such  a  man. 
Bishop  Coke's  dream  was  now  realized 
in  the  founding  of  the  first  mission  of  our 
Church  among  a  wholly  non-Christian  peo- 
ple. 

Brothers  Collins  and  White  sailed  from 
Boston  on  the  good  ship  Heber,  April  15, 


48  China  and  Methodism. 

1847,  *^^<i  landed  at  Macao,  near  Canton, 
^,    ^       about  the  middle  of  Ausrust,  and 

The  Foo-  ,  ' 

chow  Mis  on  September  4th  reached  Foo- 
^'°"  chow,  their  intended  station.  They 
were  welcomed  by  Stephen  Johnson  and 
Lyman  B.  Peet,  of  the  American  Board, 
who  had  reached  Foochow  a  few  weeks 
earlier;  and  the  delightful  relations  thus  in- 
augurated have  continued  between  the  two 
missions  for  sixty  years. 

While  the  missionaries  were  learning  the 
language,  they  aw^akened  the  interest  of  the 
Chinese  by  the  successful  use  of  a  small 
stock  of  medicines  which  Dr.  White  had 
brought  from  America  and  by  the  distri- 
bution of  a  large  number  of  tracts  and  por- 
tions of  the  Scripture,  which  they  had  se- 
cured from  English  missionaries  at  Macao 
and  Hongkong.  So  eager  was  the  dem.and 
for  literature  that  the  first  request  which 
the  missionaries  sent  home  w^as  for  a  print- 
ing press.  Our  missionaries  were  among 
the  first  to  recognize  the  Chinese  reverence 
for  learning  and  to  use  modern  education 
along  with  medicine  and  Christian  litera- 
ture as  providential  means  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  Christianity.     Hence  in  February, 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  49 

1848,  the  first  boys'  school  was  opened  with 
eight  pupils  and  a  school  for  girls  with  ten 
pupils,  while  a  Sunday-school  was  organ- 
ized in  March.  April,  1848,  Rev.  R.  $• 
Maclay  and  wife  and  Rev.  Harry  Hickok 
and  wife  reached  the  mission.  Illness  drove 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hickok  to  America  the  next 
year,  but  Doctor  Maclay  became  one  of  the 
founders  of  our  Church  in  China,  later  the 
founder  of  our  missions  in  Japan,  and  later 
still  the  founder  of  our  missions  in  Korea ; 
and  he  still  lives  in  ripe  old  age,  one  of  the 
missionary  statesmen  of  our  Church. 

So  great  was  Doctor  White's  success  that 
in  185 1  Rev.  Isaac  W.  Wiley,  M.  D.,  and 
wife  arrived  to  engage  in  medical  and  edu- 
cational work.  The  four  forms  of  all  suc- 
cessful missionary  work— namely,  the  dis- 
tribution of  Christian  literature  and  espe- 
cially of  the  Bible,  educational  work,  med- 
ical work,  and  preaching  the  gospel — were 
now  successfully  launched. 

The  work  which  had  begun  so  auspi- 
ciously now  began  to  suffer  reverses,  but 
from  causes  entirely  beyond  the  control  of 
the  missionaries.  Illness,  which  in  1849 
had  driven  Brother  and  Sister  Hickok 
4 


so  China  and  Methodism. 

home,  compelled  J.  D.  Collins  to  return  to 
America  in  185 1 — alas!  too  late  for  human 
help,  and  he  died  in  1852,  the  first  mission- 
ary martyr  for  China.  In  1853  the  death 
of  Mrs.  White  compelled  Dr.  White  to 
return  to  America,  where  he  rose  rapidly 
in  his  profession  and  became  a  professor 
in  Yale  University,  never  losing  his  inter- 
est in  the  work  in  China.  Again,  the  Tai- 
ping  Rebellion,  which  from  185 1  to  1865 
proved  a  veritable  scourge  of  God  for 
China,  drove  to  Hongkong  for  protection  in 
1852  all  the  Foochow  missionaries  except 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wiley.  Dr.  Wiley  trusted 
to  his  medical  influence  for  protection, 
and  he  and  his  wife  ventured  to  continue 
the  work.  But  in  a  few  months  Mrs.  Wiley 
died,  and  the  doctor,  with  his  motherless 
children,  was  compelled  to  return  to  the 
United  States,  thus  leaving  the  mission  at 
Foochow,  at  the  end  of  six  years'  effort, 
without  a  single  convert  or  a  single  worker 
on  the  field.  Methodism  is  not  easily  dis- 
couraged, however,  and  in  1855  the  work 
was  resumed  by  R.  S.  Maclay  and  wife, 
while  Rev.  Erastus  Wentworth  and  wife 
and  Rev.  Otis  Gibson  and  wife  were  sent 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  51 

out  as  re-enforcements.  August  3,  1856, 
the  first  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  built 
in  China  was  dedicated  under  the  name 
the  Church  of  the  True  God. 

The  year  1857  rnarks  not  only  the  first 
decennial  year  of  our  work  in  China,  but 
a  new  era  in  the  mission;  it  witnessed  the 
first  convert  to  Christianity  won  by  our 
missionaries  in  the  empire — namely,  Ting 
An,  a  man  forty-seven  years  old,  with  a 
wife,  five  children,  and  a  host  of  relatives. 
A  few  weeks  later  his  wife  and  two  of  his 
children  were  baptized,  Mrs.  Ting  being 
the  first  woman  convert  in  the  Fukien 
Province  and  the  first  woman  baptized  by 
our  Church  in  China.  By  the  end  of  the 
year,  thirty-eight  adults  and  three  children 
were  received  by  baptism.  The  faith  of  our 
missionaries  was  thus  publicly  honored  by 
God,  and  it  seemed  to  them  as  if  the  mil- 
lennium had  come.  In  1858  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  was  regularly  organized 
in  China,  with  members,  probationers,  class- 
meetings,  quarterly-meetings,  and  all  the 
other  features  of  our  work. 

In  1859  the  work  began  to  spread,  and 
thirteen  inquirers    were    enrolled    at  To- 


52  China  and  Methodism. 

cheng,  fifteen  miles  northwest  of  Foochow 
up  the  Ming  River.  The  spiritual  interest 
now  deepened  rapidly,  and  inquirers  and 
converts  began  to  multiply,  so  that  in  1859 
six  Chinese  converts  were  licensed  as  local 
preachers.  The  Methodist  system  of  re- 
ceiving inquirers,  first  on  probation,  and  of 
starting  men  toward  the  ministry  by  a  sim- 
ple license  to  exhort,  which  may  be  recalled 
at  any  time  and  which  expires  at  the  close 
of  a  year  unless  renewed  by  formal  vote, 
proved  a  providential  m.ethod  of  building 
up  our  Church  in  China.  By  it  our  Church 
was  speedily  enabled  to  enroll  members 
upon  trial  and  to  enlist  native  workers  in 
the  ministry,  and  by  it  she  is  enrolling  to- 
day a  larger  number  of  members  and  of 
native  workers  in  proportion  to  her  mis- 
sionaries than  any  other  Church  in  the 
empire. 

Along  with  Christianity,  western  educa- 
tion and  western  medicine  the  missionaries 
began  in  1859  reform  efforts  in  opposition 
to  foot-binding  and  to  opium.  They  also 
introduced  into  the  empire  white  potatoes, 
tomatoes,  and  many  other  vegetables  and 
fruits,    so   that   almost   every   province   in 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  53 

China  has  thus  permanently  enriched  her 
agricultural  resources  through  missionary 
efforts. 

Encouraged  by  the  success  now  attend- 
ing the  work,  the  Church  at  home  sent  out 
in  1858  Rev.  Stephen  L.  Baldwin  and  wife, 
Miss  Beulah  Woolston,  Miss  Sarah  Wools- 
ton,  and  Miss  Phoebe  Potter.  These  young 
women  were  the  file-leaders  of  the  splen- 
did host  of  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society  workers  in  the  empire,  and  soon 
opened  a  girls'  boarding-school.  Doctor 
Baldwin,  by  his  splendid  services  in  China 
and  in  America  and  by  his  heroic  death, 
justly  earned  the  title  of  the  St.  Stephen 
of  Chinese  Methodism.  In  i860  Rev.  Car- 
los Martin  and  wife  came  out.  Four  years 
later  Brother  Martin's  four-year-old  boy 
fell  ill  with  cholera,  and  the  father  carried 
the  lad  in  his  arms,  trying  to  soothe  his  pain, 
until,  at  midnight,  he  brought  the  child  to 
his  wife,  saying,  *'Mary,  I  can  not  keep  up 
another  minute."  Placing  the  child  in  its 
mother's  arms,  he  himself  lay  down  over- 
come by  the  same  disease.  Two  hours  later 
the  father  was  unconscious,  and  the  child 
died.     Before   sunrise    the    father   passed 


54  China  and  Methodism. 

away,  and  before  sundown  the  two  were 
buried,  and  Mrs.  Martin  was  a  childless 
widow. 

Whereas  the  first  ten  years  of  missionary 
effort  were  required  to  make  a  single  con- 
vert, the  second  ten  years  proved  fruitful, 
and  in  1867  four  hundred  and  fifty  members 
of  our  Church  were  reported.  The  mission 
now  entered  upon  a  period  of  expansion. 
While  it  had  only  eleven  workers,  counting 
the  wives  of  the  missionaries,  for  the  twen- 
two-million  people  of  the  Fukien  Province, 
yet  this  little  band  heroically  consented  that 
the  eight  new  missionaries  just  arriving 
should  go  to  the  regions  beyond  and  open 
up  new  fields.  Before  following  these  new 
recruits  to  their  heroic  tasks,  let  us  complete 
the  sketch  of  the  Foochow  Mission. 

Rev.  Isaac  W.  Wiley,  M.  D.,  who  had 
come  to  Foochow  as  a  missionary  in  1852, 
who  had  remained  at  the  station  as  a  phy- 
sician and  evangelist  when  the  other  mis- 
sionaries were  driven  to  Hongkong,  who 
had  buried  his  wife  at  Foochow  a  little  later 
and  been  compelled  to  return  to  America 
with  his  motherless  children,  steadily  rose 
in  the  estimation  of  the  Church  at  home, 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  55 

was  elected  to  the  Episcopacy  in  1872,  vis- 
isted  China  as  Bishop  in  1877,  and  organ- 
ized the  first  Annual  Conference  in  this 
great  empire.  Surely  as  Doctor  Wiley  stood 
in  1852  in  the  little  cemetery  at  Foochow 
on  ground  hallowed  by  the  death  of  his 
wife ;  as  he  closed  the  door  of  the  mission- 
ary home,  and  looked  down  upon  the  city 
from  which  he  was  being  forced  to  return 
to  America  without  witnessing  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  labors  of  himself  and  his  fellow- 
workers  a  single  convert,  he  must  have 
been  led  to  fear  that  the  whole  movement 
was  a  miserable  Methodist  fiasco,  springing 
from  the  zeal  of  callow  students,  backed  by 
the  unbalanced  enthusiasm  of  preachers. 
But  when  he  was  permitted  to  return  twen- 
ty-five years  later  and  organize  an  Annual 
Conference  and  witness  two  other  missions, 
springing  out  of  the  labors  of  himself  and 
his  fellow-missionaries,  his  heart  must  have 
cried  out  in  gratitude,  "What  hath  God 
wrought !"  It  is  still  more  remarkable  that 
seven  years  later  Bishop  Wiley,  on  another 
tour  around  the  world,  reached  Foochow 
in  time  to  lie  down  and  die,  November  22, 
1884,  thus  finding  his  last  resting-place  on 


S6  China  and  Methodism. 

the  spot  where  he  began  his  missionary  la- 
bors, a  spot  consecrated  by  the  death  of  his 
wife  thirty-two  years  before  and  hallowed 
by  the  later  victories  of  the  cross.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  number  buried  there,  no  other 
cemetery  in  our  Church  contains  so  many 
men  and  women  whose  names  are  high  upon  - 
the  bead-roll  of  heroism.  With  Bishop  and 
Mrs.  Wiley,  Mrs.  White,  Mrs.  Hickok, 
Mrs.  Wentworth,  Carlos  Martin,  Nathan 
Sites,  Nathan  J.  Plumb,  Professor  Ben 
March,  and  President  Simester,  the  Foo- 
chow  Cemetery  has  become  the  Campo 
Santo  of  Methodism. 

We  have  not  time  to  follow  further  the 
history  of  this  Conference  or  the  record 
of  the  noble  leaders  who  have  toiled  and 
suffered  and  died  in  carrying  out  Christ's 
last  command.  We  will  even  leave  the  in- 
spiring statistics  of  her  g-rowth  for  the  sum- 
mary at  the  close.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  were 
all  the  missionaries  of  all  the  Churches  and 
all  the  members  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
on  earth  translated  to  glory  to-day,  save  the 
members  of  our  Church  in  Foochow  Confer- 
ence, these  twelve  thousand  Christians  have 
sufficient  Christian  experience,  so  close  and 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  57 

personal  a  union  with  Christ,  and  sufficient 
loyalty  to  Him  to  start  the  kingdom  once 
more  around  the  world.  Even  if  all  Chris- 
tian literature,  including  the  Bible,  were 
taken  from  the  earth,  these  Fukien  Chris- 
tians could  reproduce  from  memory  the 
New  Testament,  the  Psalms,  Genesis,  and 
Exodus,  and  Job,  word  for  word,  and  the 
remainder  of  the  Old  Testament  in  substan- 
tially its  present  form.  What  stronger 
statement  can  be  made  for  any  Church  in 
any  land  on  earth! 

In   1866  Rev.  Virgil  C.  Hart  and  wife 

arrived  at  Foochow,  and  in  1867  they  were 

sent    to    Kiukiang-,    about    eight    hundred 

^        ,     miles  northwest  of  Foochow,  and 

Central 

China  Mis-  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
^'°"  up  the  Yangtse,  to  open  work  in 
Central  China.  Kiukiang  was  regarded  as 
the  northern  gateway  to  the  Kiangsi  Prov- 
ince, as  the  eastern  gateway  to  the  Hupeh 
Province,  and  the  western  gateway  to  the 
Anhwei  Province,  and  so  was  considered  an 
exceedingly  important  doorway  to  eighty- 
five  million  people.  Probably  it  would  have 
been  better  had  our  missionaries  gone  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  further  up  the  Yang- 


58  China  and  Methodism. 

tze  and  settled  at  Hankow,  which  is  prov- 
ing to  be  the  Chicago  of  China,  and  which, 
with  the  cities  of  Hanyang  and  Wuchang, 
on  the  opposite  banks  of  the  Yangtze  and 
the  Han,  now  numbers  two  million  people  as 
compared  with  eighty  thousand  in  Kiuki- 
ang.  But  our  missionaries  could  not  fore- 
see the  relative  growth  of  these  two  cities 
fifty  years  ago  any  more  than  pioneers  could 
foresee  the  relative  growth  of  Chicago  and 
Milwaukee;  and  Kiukiang  has  proved  to 
be  a  good  location  with  unlimited  possibili- 
ties of  work.  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Hart  were 
soon  re-enforced  by  Rev.  Elbert  S.  Todd 
and  wife,  and  later  by  Rev.  Henry  H.  Hall 
and  wife  and  Rev.  John  Ing  and  wife,  and 
our  mission  in  Central  China  in  due  time 
took  up  the  four  departments  of  Christian 
work — distribution  of  the  Bible,  healing  the 
sick,  teaching  the  children,  and  preaching 
the  gospel. 

The  father  of  Misses  Anna  and  Mary 
Stone  was  the  first  convert  in  the  Hupeh 
Province.  His  daughters  were  the  first 
girls  in  Central  China  belonging  to  the 
better  class  of  society  who  were  brought 
up  with  unbound  feet.     Through  the  self- 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  59 

sacrifice  of  Miss  Gertrude  Howe,  who  has 
been  in  Central  China  for  over  thirty  years, 
these  sisters  and  Dr.  Ida  Kahn  were  ed- 
ucated in  America.  Miss  Anna  Stone  has 
cast  the  strange  spell  of  her  beautiful  voice 
and  her  winning  personality  over  thousands 
of  people  in  America,  whose  hearts  she  has 
won  for  China  by  her  singing,  and  over  a 
still  larger  number  in  China,  whose  hearts 
she  has  touched  by  her  beautiful  voice  and 
her  saintly  face.  Like  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands in  the  homeland  and  millions  in 
China,  she  became  a  victim  of  the  great 
white  plague,  and  in  1906  heard  the  Mas- 
ter's call  to  join  the  angelic  throng  around 
the  throne.  Dr.  Mary  Stone  has  become 
the  leading  physician  in  Kiukiang,  and, 
like  Dr.  Ida  Kahn,  of  Nanchang,  and  Dr. 
Hu  King  Eng,  of  Foochow,  she  is  render- 
ing a  spiritual  and  physical  service  to  her 
sisters  in  the  empire  which  only  eternity 
will  reveal.  How  little  Dr.  Hart,  when 
winning  the  Hupeh  Chinaman,  and  Miss 
Howe,  when  putting  her  money  and  influ- 
ence into  the  training  of  these  Chinese  girls, 
dreamed  of  the  outreaching  influence  of 
that  family  in  the  second  generation !    How 


60  China  and  Methodism. 

little  men  and  women  at  home  whose  sacri- 
fices are  supporting  workers  in  this  greo.t 
empire  to-day  foresee  the  splendid  results 
which  coining  generations  will  witness  as 
the  outcome  of  their  heroism  and  self  sacri- 
fice. 

The  leading  stations  in  the  Central  China 
Conference  are  Kiukiang,  opened  in  1867, 
but  now  with  the  Kiukiang  Girls'  School, 
the  Woman's  Hospital,  and  the  William 
Nast  College,  the  center  of  life  and  hght 
for  millions  of  people  surrounding  it; 
Wuhu,  opened  in  1882,  the  largest  Chinese 
port  for  the  original  shipment  of  rice,  where 
our  women  have  secured  a  site  worth  five 
times  as  much  as  they  paid  for  it  a  few 
years  ago,  and  where  Dr.  E.  H.  Hart,  son 
of  the  founder  of  the  mission,  has  the 
leading  surgical  hospital  on  the  Yangtze 
River;  Chinkiang,  opened  in  1882,  where 
the  Grand  Canal  crosses  the  Yangtze,  and 
where  our  woman's  hospital  and  girls' 
school  and  preaching  stations  extend  their 
influence  to  other  millions  up  and  down  the 
river  and  the  canal ;  Yangchow,  on  the 
Grand  Canal,  the  center  of  the  silk  industry 
and  a  strategical  point  for  the  introduction 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  61 

of  our  work  to  the  regions  lying  north  of 
the  Yangtze,  and  Nanking,  the  old  capital 
of  the  empire,  and  still  the  leading  intellec- 
tual and  political  center  of  the  Yangtze  Val- 
ley, where  our  Nanking  University,  our 
Philander  Smith  Memorial  Hospital,  our 
Girls'  school,  and  our  evangelistic  work  are 
sending  out  streams  of  healing  to  addi- 
tional millions  in  the  Kiangsu,  Anhwei,  and 
Kiangsi  Provinces ;  and  Nanchang,  the  last 
station  to  be  founded  and  the  last  of  the 
seven  cities  of  China  with  a  million  or  more 
inhabitants  to  open  its  doors  to  the  gospel. 
Our  work  in  Central  China  has  proceeded 
with  a  rapidity  which  would  have  been  re- 
garded as  providential  by  the  early  mission- 
aries in  the  empire.  The  gains,  however, 
have  not  been  so  rapid  as  in  the  other  four 
missions  of  our  Church  in  China.  This 
slower  growth  is  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that 
in  Central  China  our  boundless  opportuni- 
ties exceed  so  largely  our  present  resources. 
When  we  thrust  fifty  missionaries  into  three 
provinces  for  the  distribution  of  Christian 
literature,  the  healing,  teaching,  and  evan- 
gelization of  more  people  than  are  found  in 
the  United   States  to-day,   what   can    our 


62  China  and  Methodism. 

Church  expect  but  a  lack  of  supervision  and 
leadership  and  a  consequent  failure  of  the 
native  Christians  to  measure  up  to  the  re- 
sponsibilities thus  thrust  upon  them?  If, 
in  addition  to  re-enforcing  the  workers  in 
our  present  hospitals,  schools,  and  colleges, 
we  can  speedily  put  one  missionary  for 
evangelistic  work  into  the  Central  China 
Mission  for  each  five  million  of  the  pop- 
ulation, we  can  secure  results  there  which 
will  cause  the  heart  of  the  Church  at  home 
to  leap  for  joy  and  the  angels  in  heaven  to 
strike  a  new  note  of  victory. 

January  20,  1869,  Rev.  Lucius  N. 
Wheeler  and  wife  were  sent  to  Peking  to 
open  the  North  China  Mission.     February 

2y,  1869,  Rev.  Hiram  H.  Lowry 
China  ^^^  ^^^^  followcd,  and  on  Doctor 
Confer-     Wheclcr's  retirement,  on  account 

of  ill  health,  from  the  superintend- 
ency  of  the  mission  in  1873,  Doctor  Lowry 
was  made  superintendent  and  continued  in 
that  position  until  the  mission  became  a 
Conference.  The  North  China  Mission 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Foochow 
Mission,  and  adopted  the  four  forms  of 
propagation   universal   in   Protestant   mis- 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  63 

sions — namely,  the  distribution  of  the  Bible 
and  Christian  literature,  healing  the  sick, 
teaching  the  young,  and  preaching  the  gos- 
pel. Peking,  as  the  capital  of  the  empire, 
and  as  a  city  of  between  one  and  two  mil- 
lion people,  has  been  the  center  of  our  work 
for  the  Chihli  Province  perhaps  even  more 
fully  than  Foochow,  with  its  million  inhab- 
itants, has  been  the  center  of  our  work  for 
the  Fukien  Province. 

A  providential  incident  carried  the  gospel 
into  the  adjoining  Shantung  Province.  In 
1874  a  Mr.  Wang  of  that  province,  with 
thousands  of  other  Chinese  students,  was 
attending  the  examinations  for  the  highest 
degree  at  Peking.  While  there  he  heard 
the  gospel  preached  in  one  of  our  street 
chapels.  He  was  much  impressed  with  the 
story  of  a  Savior  who  was  the  Son  of  the 
only  true  God  and  who  had  come  to  earth 
to  save  men  from  the  guilt  and  the  power 
of  sin.  He  procured  the  New  Testament 
and  other  Christian  literature  and  became  at 
heart  a  believer.  On  his  return  to  Shan- 
tung he  told  his  wife  of  the  strange  new 
faith  which  had  wrought  peace  to  his  soul. 
She  was  so  eager  to  know  more  about  the 


64  China  and  Methodism. 

doctrine  that  she  resolved  upon  a  personal 
journey  to  Peking,  and  her  son  took  her  all 
the  way  from  Taian  to  the  capital,  a  dis- 
tance of  four  hundred  and  sixty-three  miles, 
in  a  wheelbarrow.  She  also  became  a  joyful 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  continues  to 
this  day  to  bear  testimony  to  His  saving 
power  to  thousands  of  her  fellowcitizens. 
Her  great  ambition  is  to  reach  the  Dowager 
Empress  and  tell  her  the  wondrous  story  of 
personal  salvation  through  Jesus  Clirist,  be- 
fore the  Empress  is  called  to  render  an  ac- 
count for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  It 
was  through  the  faith  and  the  self-sacrifice 
and  the  heroism  of  the  Wangs  that  Meth- 
odism was  introduced  into  the  Shantung 
Province.  Their  son,  Wang  Chengpai,  be- 
came a  minister,  and  witnessed  a  heroic 
confession  to  his  faith  by  a  martyr's  death 
during  the  Boxer  uprising. 

In  1878  the  Peking  Boys'  [Boarding- 
school  was  opened  with  six  students.  This 
developed  into  the  Wiley  Institute  in  1885, 
and  was  organized  as  Peking  University  in 
1888.  The  revivals  held  at  Peking  Uni- 
versity under  President  Lowry  in  1905-6 
swept  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  young 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  65 

men  into  the  Christian  ministry,  and  led 
the  young  men,  on  their  own  initiative,  to 
form  the  first  Student  Volunteer  Band  in 
China.  This  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  of 
self -propagation  we  have  thus  far  seen  in 
the  empire.  I  doubt  also  if  any  other  re- 
cent revival  at  any  single  church  or  college 
in  the  world  has  led  so  many  into  the  min- 
istry of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  has  this 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon  a  Church  in 
a  mission  land. 

In  1880  Doctor  John  F.  Goucher,  of 
Baltimore,  gave  five  thousand  dollars  to 
establish  a  woman's  hospital  at  Tientsin, 
and  the  hospital  was  dedicated  in  1881  as 
the  Isabella  Fisher  Hospital.  In  1893  the 
North  China  Conference  and  the  North 
China  Woman's  Conference  were  organ- 
ized. In  1902  the  John  L.  Hopkins  Me- 
morial Hospital  was  dedicated  at  Peking, 
and  in  1906  the  medical  work  Of  Peking 
University  was  united  with  the  medical 
work  of  the  London  Mission,  the  American 
Board,  and  the  Presbyterian  Mission,  thus 
forming  the  strongest  medical  school  in  the 
Chinese  Empire. 

The  great  event  in  the  history  of  the 
5 


66  China  and  Methodism. 

North  China  Conference  was  the  baptism 
of  fire  and  blood  through  which  our  Churcfi 
was  called  to  pass  in  connection  with  the 
Boxer  uprising.  The  story  is  vividly  told 
in  Professor  Headland's  ''Chinese  Heroes." 
As  a  providential  preparation  for  the  out- 
break, Rev.  J.  H.  Pyke,  w^ho  had  been  a 
member  of  our  mission  since  1873,  and 
whose  own  spiritual  strength  had  been 
greatly  renewed  by  participating  in  revival 
services  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  S.  L.  Keen  in  1893,  returned 
to  China,  and  was  used  by  the  Lord  for  the 
promotion  of  revivals,  not  only  in  our 
Church,  but  in  other  Churches  in  North 
China.  During  the  Boxer  uprising  these 
revivals  v/ere  recognized  as  a  providential 
preparation,  enabling  literally  thousands  of 
Christians  to  witness  a  good  confession  to 
Christ  by  deaths  matching  in  heroism  the 
deaths  of  Ridley,  Cranmer,  and  Huss  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation.  I  need  not  re- 
count the  story  of  the  brilliant  heroism  dis- 
played by  our  Methodist  missionaries  and 
others  in  the  Peking  siege  and  in  the  strug- 
gles and  capture  of  Tientsin.  We  are 
proud  of  the  fact  that  one  of  our  mission- 


M.  E.  Church  In  China.  67 

aries,  Prof.  F.  D.  Gamewell,  was  chosen 
from  the  representatives  of  the  five  leading 
governments  then  in  Peking  to  take  in 
charge  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  the 
fortification  of  the  legations  during  the  five 
months'  siege;  and  that  he  discharged  the 
task  with  such  signal  ability  and  fidelity  as 
to  win  the  hearty  commendation  of  Sir 
Claude  Macdonald,  commander  of  all  the 
troops,  the  enthusiastic  praise  of  the  London 
Times,  and  the  formal  thanks  of  the  British 
Government,  tendered  him  officially  through 
the  American  Secretary  of  State.  But  Doc- 
tor Gamewell  insists  to  this  day  that  he  has 
not  shown  a  particle  more  bravery  and  de- 
votion than  Brothers  W.  T.  Hobart,  J.  H. 
Pyke,  George  R.  Davis,  William  F.  Walker, 
George  W.  Verity,  and  Doctor  George  D. 
Lowry,  who  met  the  respective  duties  as- 
signed to  them  with  equal  fidelity.  The  pro- 
tection of  the  legations  and  of  the  mission- 
aries from  the  longest  continued  rain  of 
shot  and  shell  in  history  was  due  not  simply 
and  perhaps  not  chiefly  to  the  combined  ef- 
forts of  the  soldiers  and  missionaries,  but 
to  the  Chinese  Christians  vv^ho  built  the  ram- 
parts in  obedience  to  foreign  orders  and  ce- 


68  China  and  Methodism. 

mented  them  with  their  blood,  and  above 
all  to  the  God  of  the  universe,  who  holds 
the  destinies  of  individuals  and  of  nations 
in  the  hollow  of  His  hand. 

I  can  not  leave  the  Boxer  uprising  with- 
out at  least  a  fuller  reference  to  the  splen- 
did heroism  of  the  Chinese  Christians.  Just 
before  the  Boxer  outbreak  word  was  sent 
to  N.  L.  Hopkins,  M.  D.,  and  Rev.  J.  N. 
Hayner,  who,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
were  in  Tsunhua,  that  danger  was  impend- 
ing. Doctor  Edna  G.  Terry  and  Mrs.  Geo. 
D.  Lowry  and  Mrs.  H.  E.  King,  with  the 
children  of  the  latter  two,  were  also  at 
Tsunhua.  Doctor  Hopkins  and  Brother 
Hayner  did  not  think  the  danger  was  se- 
rious, and  did  not  leave  the  city  immedi- 
ately. A  second  messenger  arrived  between 
nine  and  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  inform- 
ing them  that  the  last  train  would  pass 
through  Tongshan,  sixty  miles  distant,  at 
noon  the  next  day,  and  that  their  only  hope 
of  escape  was  in  catching  this  train.  It  took 
much  effort  and  several  hours  to  secure 
Chinese  carts  and  get  started  from  Tsunhua 
to  Tongshan,  and  the  two  men,  five  women, 
and  seven  children  left  Tsunhua  about  two 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  69 

A.  M.  They  were  not  out  of  the  compound 
a  half  hour  before  the  mob  broke  in  and  set 
the  buildings  on  fire.  At  once  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Christians  began.  The  Chinese 
pastor  was  taken  to  a  heathen  temple  and 
urged  to  worship  the  heathen  gods.  This 
he  refused  to  do,  and  he  was  tied  to  one 
of  the  stone  lions  throughout  the  night, 
while  his  friends  gathered  around  him  and 
urged  him  to  renounce  Christ;  but  he  con- 
tinued to  bear  witness  to  Christ's  power  to 
save.  At  daylight  the  crowd  rapidly  in- 
creased to  several  thousand,  and  in  a  mad 
rush  he  was  suddenly  attacked  and  his 
heart  literally  torn  out  by  the  mob.  Nor  did 
the  crowd  confine  its  persecutions  to  men. 
Among  the  women  were  two  native  teachers 
of  our  girls'  school  at  Tsunhua.  These 
were  ofifered  their  lives  on  condition  that 
they  would  renounce  Christ  and  become  the 
concubines  of  persons  who  proposed  this 
way  of  escape  on  that  fatal  day.  The  wo- 
men declined.  One  of  them  had  her  feet 
chopped  off  with  a  dull  ax,  and  later  was 
killed  with  a  sword.  The  other  was 
wrapped  in  cotton  and  soaked  with  kero- 
sene and  then  set  on  fire  and  burned  alive. 


70  China  and  Methodism. 

Every  Methodist  in  the  place,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  four  or  five  who  were  small  and 
unknown,  suffered  martyrdom,  and  the 
Tsunhua  list  of  martyrs  numbers  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three. 

Perhaps  another  even  more  striking  inci- 
dent of  the  fidelity  of  the  Chinese  is  found 
in  the  Ch'en  family.  This  has  been  one  of 
the  leading  families  in  the  mission  for  many 
years.  The  North  China  Conference  closed 
its  session  at  Peking  the  day  before  the 
Boxer  uprising  took  place.  Rev.  Brother 
Ch'en  and  wife  and  three  children  started 
promptly  back  to  their  station.  They  were 
overtaken  and  captured  by  the  Boxers  and 
were  offered  their  liberty  and  safety  if  they 
would  renounce  the  Christ.  The  father 
steadfastly  refused,  and  was  put  to  death 
in  the  presence  of  his  wife  and  children. 
The  wife  steadfastly  refused  to  deny  Christ, 
and  was  then  put  to  death  in  the  presence  of 
her  children.  One  son  and  two  daughters 
steadfastly  refused  to  deny  the  Master  and 
were  put  to  death.  When  I  held  the  Con- 
ference at  Peking  in  1905  one  of  the  sur- 
viving sons  was  the  popular  pastor  of  our 
Asbury    Church    at    Peking,    the    leading 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  71 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  North 
China.  At  his  own  personal  and  urgent  re- 
quest, I  transferred  him  from  this  large 
Church  to  the  small  one  in  a  northern  town 
where  his  father  suffered  martyrdom,  that 
he  might  preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ  to  those  who  shamefully  put  his 
family  to  death.  The  North  China  martyrs 
have  forever  put  to  shame  and  contempt 
American  travelers  who  denounce  Chinese 
Church  members  as  simply  ''rice  Chris- 
tians." 

As  Lowry,   Davis  and   Pilcher,   Walker 

and   Pyke  and  Hobart  and  Verity;   Mrs. 

Jewell  and  Miss  Gloss,  M.  D.,  and  Miss 

...    ,        Terry,  M.  D.,  have  been  the  lead- 

Hinghua  r       1  XT  r^'i  '  r^        r 

Confer-  crs  of  the  North  Chma  Confer- 
ence ^j^^g .  ^g  gites  and  Plumb,  Wilcox 
and  Worley,  Misses  Parkinson  and  Bona- 
field  and  Trimble  have  been  the  leaders  in 
the  Foochow  Conference,  so  Brewster  and 
Owen,  Misses  Wilson  and  Lebeus  have  led 
the  forces  in  the  Hinghua  Conference.  As 
Pilcher  has  consecrated  the  educational 
work  in  North  China  and  Marsh  and 
Simester  in  Foochow  by  martyrdom,  so 
Guthrie  in  Hinghua  has  crowned  his  edu- 


72  China  and  Methodism. 

cational  career  for  the  Master  by  his  death 
upon  the  field.  The  Hinghua  Conference 
was  separated  from  the  Foochow  Confer- 
ence in  1896,  although  the  work  was  begun 
in  the  Hinghua  territory  many  years  earlier. 
The  Conference  practically  embraces  the 
Hinghua  Plain,  with  the  surrounding  hills 
and  mountains  extending  back  to  the  west- 
ern edge  of  the  Fukien  Province  and  em- 
bracing a  territory  of  some  six  or  eight  thou- 
sand square  miles,  and  a  population  of  three 
to  five  million.  This  Conference  is  the  su- 
preme illustration  to  our  Church  at  home 
of  the  value  of  intensive  effort  in  China. 
Hinghua,  with  its  church,  its  Rebecca  Mc- 
Cabe  orphanage,  its  industrial  school  for 
boys  and  girls,  its  Bible-training  school  for 
women,  its  high  school  and  Biblical  school 
for  men,  furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of 
successful  work  in  the  capital  of  the  pre- 
fecture. On  my  last  visit  to  Hinghua  I 
baptized  thirty-eight  children  at  a  single 
service,  eight  of  whom  bore  the  name  of 
their  patron  saint,  McCabe. 

Singiu,  with  its  Isabel  Hart  Girls'  School, 
its  Hamilton-Uhler  Memorial  Building  and 
Knoechel    School    for   Bible   Women,   the 


M.  E.  Church  in  China,  73 

German  Memorial  Home,  the  William 
Nast  Memorial  Church,  and  the  Mar- 
garet Eliza  Nast  Memorial  Hospital  fur- 
nishes another  one  of  the  finest  plants  for 
all-round  missionary  work  to  be  found  in 
China.  With  our  plants  at  Ingchung  and 
Dehhua  and  Duacheng,  we  reach  a  moun- 
tain territory  of  some  six  thousand  square 
miles  in  extent,  with  a  population  of  about 
one  million  people;  while  with  our  plants 
at  Hinghua  and  Antau  and  Singiu,  we 
reach  some  two  to  four  million  more.  In 
view  of  the  many  other  opportunities  in 
China,  there  was  serious  discussion  a  few 
years  ago  about  the  abandonment  of  the 
work  in  the  western  part  of  the  Hinghua 
Conference,  the  mountain  region  with  only 
a  million  people.  But  the  four  hundred 
members  of  our  Church  then  in  that  field 
declined  to  be  transferred  to  the  Scotch 
Presbyterians  of  Amoy.  We  have  been 
prospered  in  all  our  schools  and  Churches 
since  our  decision  to  remain  there.  Surely 
if  it  is  worth  while  for  Methodism  to  put 
men  and  money  into  the  146,000  square 
miles  of  Montana  in  order  to  reach  a  quar- 
ter of  a  million  inhabitants,  or  to  work  in 


74  China  and  Methodism. 

the  thirty-three  thousand  and  forty  square 
miles  of  Maine  in  order  to  reach  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants,  it  is  worth  while 
for  Methodism  to  attempt  to  occupy  the 
six  thousand  square  miles  of  the  western 
part  of  the  Hinghua  Conference  in  order 
to  reach  a  hardy  mountain  population  of 
one  million  souls.  While  the  population  is 
thin  as  compared  with  the  other  regions  of 
China,  yet  it  was  such  a  mountain  region 
that  gave  Confucius  and  Mencius  to  the 
empire ;  it  was  such  a  mountain  region 
that  gave  Paul  to  the  early  Church,  and  a 
similar  region  that  gave  Patrick  Henry 
to  the  American  Revolution.  If  this  region 
furnishes  the  St.  Paul  for  the  Church  in 
China  in  the  twentieth  centry,  our  efforts 
will  be  repaid  a  thousand-fold.  But  it  is 
quite  possible  that  the  thirty-six  square 
miles  of  pottery  clay  in  the  region  of  Deh- 
hua  and  the  iron  and  coal  of  Duacheng  may 
turn  this  mountain  region  into  the  Birm- 
ingham or  Pittsburg  of  the  Fukien  Prov- 
ince. It  is  not  improbable  that  the  popula- 
tion of  the  region  will  double  or  quadruple 
within  the  next  twenty-five  years,  and  this 
part  of  our  work  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  75 

most  providential  in  the  empire.  Surely 
when  comparing  the  seven  missionaries 
(including  teachers,  preachers,  and  physi- 
cians) sent  to  minister  to  the  million  people 
in  the  western  part  of  the  Hinghua  Confer- 
ence with  the  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
Methodist  ministers,  not  to  mention  the  phy- 
sicians and  teachers  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
the  Church  will  not  feel  that  she  is  giving 
even  the  Hinghua  Conference  a  very  rich 
endowment  of  men  and  means.  Indeed,  the 
doubling  of  the  number  of  our  missionaries 
would  enable  us  to  double  or  treble  our 
members  in  that  Conference  within  the  next 
four  or  five  years.  But  even  with  such 
scant  equipment,  the  Hinghua  Conference 
furnishes  the  best  illustration  in  China  of 
the  intensive  method  of  cultivating  our  field. 
I  am  sure  that  the  Hinghua  people  will 
maintain  that  with  an  equal  number  of  mis- 
sionaries in  proportion  to  the  population, 
equal  results  could  have  been  obtained  in 
every  other  part  of  China.  But  the  three  to 
five  million  Chinese  in  the  Hinghua  Confer- 
ence, under  the  intensive  method  of  culti- 
vation, have  given  us  4,500  Church  mem- 
bers.    A  similar  cultivation  of  the  fields 


76  China  and  Methodism. 

throughout  the  empire  and  a  similar  length 
of  time  for  growth  would  give  Methodism 
in  China  675,000  members. 

The  West  China  Mission,  the  latest  of 
our  missions  in  China,  was  opened  through 
the  generosity  of  Dr.  J.  F.  Goucher,  who 

^         pledged  the  Missionary  Society  a 

China  gift  of  $5,000  if  she  would  enter 
Mission  that  distant  field.  On  payment  of 
this  sum  Rev.  Lucius  N.  Wheeler  and  wife, 
who  had  opened  the  mission  in  North 
China,  and  Rev.  Spencer  I^ewis  and  wife 
opened  work  in  this  mission  in  1882.  Doctor 
Wheeler's  daughter,  Miss  Frances  Wheeler, 
at  the  same  time  opened  the  work  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  So- 
ciety. When  Doctor  Wheeler's  health  com- 
pelled his  retirement  from  the  Conference, 
in  1884,  Prof.  F.  D.  Gamewell  succeeded 
him  as  superintendent  of  the  mission.  Miss 
Gertrude  Howe,  who  had  been  in  Central 
China  since  1870,  was  also  loaned  to  West 
China  for  a  few  years  to  take  charge  of  the 
work  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society. 

The  West  China  Mission  offers  at  once 
both  the  greatest  difficulties  in  reaching  the 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  77 

field  and  tlie  richest  results  thus  far 
achieved  by  any  mission  of  our  Church  in 
the  empire.  After  one  has  traveled  from 
New  York  to  Shanghai  in  perhaps  twen- 
ty-five days,  he  will  need  ten  days  more  to 
go  by  steamboat  up  the  Yangtze  from 
Shanghai  to  Ichang,  stopping  at  the  river 
ports  on  the  way.  But  when  he  has  reached 
Ichang  and  has  spent  thirty-five  days  on  his 
journey,  he  is  still  only  half  way  to  the 
Szechuen  Province  in  the  time  required  to 
reach  the  field,  and  far  less  than  half  way 
in  the  dangers  to  be  encountered  on  the 
trip.  It  usually  requires  thirty  days  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances  to  reach 
Chungking,  the  commercial  metropolis  of 
the  Szechuen  Province,  and  forty  days  to 
travel  from  Ichang  to  Chentu,  the  capital 
of  the  province.  It  will  be  readily  under- 
stood, therefore,  that  the  people  of  the 
Szechuen  Province  had  seen  very  little  of 
foreigners  on  the  first  arrival  of  our  mis- 
sionaries in  the  field,  and  that  they  were 
naturally  timid  and  fearful  of  the  results  of 
the  foreign  religion.  This  led,  perhaps,  to 
greater  opposition  to  the  missionaries  on 
the  founding  of  the  mission  than  upon  the 


78  China  and  Methodism. 

part  of  the  people  in  any  other  province  in 
the  empire.  So  great  was  this  opposition 
that  under  the  inspiration  of  Taoist  priests, 
a  riot  broke  out  in  1886  which  drove  every 
missionary  from  the  field,  and  left  the 
Church  apparently  nothing  to  show  in  the 
way  of  results  for  her  effort  and  sacri- 
fice. In  the  winter  of  1886  Rev.  Virgil 
C.  Hart  and  wife  and  Rev.  H.  Olin  Cady 
and  wife  were  sent  to  reopen  the  mission. 
Doctor  Hart  served  as  superintendent  of 
the  mission  until  ill  health  caused  his  re- 
tirement, when  he  was  succeeded  by  Rev. 
Spencer  Lewis,  who  continued  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  mission  until  his  appoint- 
ment in  1903  as  one  of  the  committee  to 
prepare  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible  made 
necessary  his  return  to  the  eastern  side  of 
the  empire.  As  our  missionaries  were 
among  the  first  to  enter  West  China,  they 
naturally  opened  work  in  the  valleys  and 
the  rich  plains  lying  between  Chungking 
and  Chentu,  where  the  population  of  the 
province  is  the  densest.  Hence  when  other 
missionary  societies  entered  the  field  and 
the  territory  was  later  divided,  our  mission 
was  assigned  the  field  already  occupied  by 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  79 

our  missionaries  embracing  an  area  some 
three  hundred  miles  long  by  seventy  or 
eighty  broad,  lying  largely  between  Chun- 
king and  Chentu,  which  is  known  as 
the  Chentu  Plain.  Mr.  Little,  in  The 
Far  Bast,  says  that  one  part  of  this  plain, 
forty  by  sixty  miles  in  extent,  sustains  the 
densest  population  of  any  spot  on  the  globe, 
unless  a  similar  area  in  England,  including 
London,  equals  it  in  numbers;  and  the 
London  population  draws  its  support  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  whereas  the  Chentu 
population  draws  its  support  from  the  soil. 
This  fertile  section  gives  our  mission  in 
West  China  about  one-tenth  of  the  area 
of  the  province,  but  probably  a  third  of 
the  population.  In  other  words,  our  Con- 
ference embraces  about  twenty-five  thou- 
sand square  miles  of  territory  and  over 
twenty  million  people.  The  stations  opened 
and  occupied  by  our  ni.issionaries  are 
Chungking,  Tsicheo,  Suiling,  and  Chentu. 
We  have  at  Chungking,  the  St.  Louis  of 
the  Chinese  Empire,  with  a  population 
of  five  hundred  thousand  people,  a  fine 
general  hospital  for  men  and  women — ^the 
best-known  hospital  in  West  China, — a  wo- 


80  China  and  Methodism. 

man's  hospital,  a  Bible-school  for  men,  a  high 
school  for  boys,  a  high  school  for  girls  and 
a  Bible  training-school  for  women.  Chentu, 
the  capital  of  the  province,  and  thus  the 
center  of  political  influence  for  sixty-eight 
million  people,  has  a  population  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand,  with  a  million  five  hundred 
thousand  more  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
capital  in  the  densely  populated  Chentu 
Plain.  We  have  just  completed  here  the 
best  hospital  building  in  West  China,  and 
have  schools  for  boys  and  also  girls,  and 
are  starting  the  Chentu  University,  which 
will  mold  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life 
of  the  province.  Our  gains  in  West  China 
have  averaged  twenty-nine  per  cent  a  year 
for  the  last  two  years,  and  we  could  easily 
double  our  membership  in  the  province 
within  the  next  two  years,  if  we  could  en- 
ter the  openings  now  inviting  us.  A  single 
scene  illustrates  the  eagerness  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Szechuen  Province  for  the  gospel. 
I  recall  reaching  a  city  of  40,000  people 
one  evening  about  sundown.  The  inn  was 
cold  and  dark  and  filthy,  and  after  spread- 
ing our  oilcloths  over  the  Chinese  beds  of 
straw  to  prevent  the  vermin  reaching  us, 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  81 

we  set  up  our  camp  bedsteads  on  top  of  the 
oilcloth,  and  our  beds  were  speedily  pre- 
pared. Despite  the  weariness  from  the 
day's  travel,  I  preferred  walking  in  the 
street  while  the  cook  prepared  our  supper 
to  sitting  in  the  dark  inn.  I  had  walked 
only  a  short  distance  when  the  street  led 
into  the  temple  area,  and  I  saw  a  consid- 
erable number  of  men  coming  with  natural 
curiosity  to  see  the  western  stranger  who 
had  stopped  inside  their  temple  grounds.  I 
returned  to  the  inn  and  asked  Brother 
Johanson  to  bring  his  mandolin  and  play 
a  tune,  and  then  translate  for  me.  Before 
he  completed  the  first  hymn  we  had  an  au- 
dience of  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand 
men.  I  told  them  that  I  would  gladly  ex- 
plain to  them  the  cause  of  our  visit,  but  I 
saw  that  we  were  in  the  temple  area  and  the 
Book  which  we  had  brought  them  and 
which  we  were  sure  came  from  God  for- 
bade the  worship  of  idols,  and  I  must  not 
tell  them  about  this  Book  in  their  temple 
area  without  their  permission.  Their  cu- 
riosity and  their  politeness  combined  over- 
came their  respect  for  their  idols,  and  they 
bade  me  speak  freely.  I  then  spent  about 
6 


82  China  and  Methodism. 

twenty  or  thirty  minutes  in  telling  them  as 
clearly  as  possible  what  the  gospel  means 
and  in  making  clear  to  them  that  they  could 
not  become  Christians  without  abandoning 
all  idolatry.  I  tried  to  show  them  that  the 
gospel  contained  the  best  news  that  had 
ever  reached  mortal  men.  At  the  close  I 
asked  how  many  of  them  had  ever  heard  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  Bible,  and  they  said 
that  not  one  of  them  had  ever  heard  the 
story.  I  told  them  that  I  was  not  sure  that 
I  could  secure  them  a  preacher,  as  we  had 
very  few  Chinese  preachers  in  the  province, 
and  that  even  had  I  a  preacher  we  had  no 
place  in  the  city  where  he  could  teach  them 
the  doctrine.  Nevertheless  I  ventured  to 
ask  them  at  the  close  how  many  of  them 
would  like  to  have  a  man  come  and  teach 
them  more  of  this  way  of  life,  if  I  could 
procure  such  a  man,  and  perhaps  two  hun- 
dred of  them  raised  their  hands.  At  the 
close  of  the  service  thirty  or  forty  of  them 
gathered  around  me,  assuring  me  that  they 
could  secure  a  place  for  teaching  the  doc- 
trine, and  that  they  would  help  support  a 
man,  if  I  would  only  send  them  some  man 
to  teach  them  the  way  of  life.     I  left  that 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  83 

city  determined  to  put  it  upon  the  list  of 
appointments  at  the  coming  Conference. 
When  I  reached  the  Conference  I  found 
that  in  order  to  hold  places  of  equal  pop- 
ulation, where  we  already  have  Chris- 
tians, we  must  send  men  into  the  field 
with  little  or  no  preparation — ^men  who 
had  only  been  Christians  for  three  or  four 
years,  and  that  without  foreign  supervision 
these  men  were  wholly  unqualified  to  estab- 
lish Christianity  and  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  our  Church  among  a  heathen  people. 
We  can  not,  therefore,  honestly  hold  posses- 
sion of  this  territory  or  of  these  cities  in 
W^est  China  unless  we  have  more  missionary 
supervision  by  men  and  women  from  the 
homeland.  Despite  every  effort,  I  could 
not  send  a  minister.  How  long  will  the 
Church  at  home  leave  cities  numbering 
forty  thousand  inhabitants  asking  for  the 
gospel  without  the  word  of  life  for  the  lack 
of  men  and  means?  How  long  will  w^e 
leave  a  field  where  our  gains  averaged 
twenty-nine  per  cent  a  year  without  the  re- 
enforcements  absolutely  essential  to  our  fu- 
ture growth  or  even  to  holding  our  present 
territory  ? 


84 


China  and  Methodism. 


The  latest  statistics  available  for  all  the 

Churches  are   found  in   Professor  Harlan 

P.  Beach's  ''Geography  and  At- 

^pclu-    /^^  Qj  Protestant  Missions''  pub- 

lished     in     1900.     Most    of     the 

Churches  have  made  advances  since  that 

date,  but  the  advances  have  been  relative, 

and  the  statistics    show    the    comparative 

work  of  all  the  Churches  in  China: 


Missionaries,   .... 

Stations, 

Hospitals, 

Day  Schools,   .... 

Scholars, 

Higher  Institutions  of 

L/carning, 

Students  in  same, 
Church  Members,  .    . 


TOTAL 

METHOD- 

IST. 

3,026 

183 

3,129 

254 

259 

7 

1,819 

371 

35412 

7,655 

170 

19 

5,150 

827 

112,808 

25-244 

.06 
.08 
.03 

.20 

.21 

.II 

.16 
.22 


The  above  table  shows  that  the  num- 
ber of  Methodist  missionaries  in  China  is 
six  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  Prot- 
estant missionaries  working  in  that  land. 
These  workers,  therefore,  should  be  able 
to  report  six  per  cent  of  the  results 
achieved  in  the  empire.  I  have  already 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  85 

four  types  of  work  carried  on  in  China — 
namely,  circulation  of  religious  literature, 
hospital  work,  school  work,  and  preaching 
the  gospel.  We  have  no  comparative  sta- 
tistics showing  the  literary  work  done  by 
the  representatives  of  the  various  missions. 
I  am  sure,  however,  that  Methodism  has 
fallen  far  below  her  just  proportion  of  lit- 
erary work.  We  have  distributed  as  much 
literature  through  our  press,  formerly  lo- 
cated at  Foochow,  but  now  at  Shanghai  in 
connection  with  the  Methodist  Church, 
South,  and  through  small  presses  at  Peking 
and  Hinghua,  as  have  other  missionaries. 
We  are  now  prepared  at  Shanghai  to  do 
publishing  equal  to  that  of  any  other 
Church  in  the  empire.  But  we  have 
not  done  our  share  of  the  work  in  trans- 
lation or  in  the  production  of  literature. 
This  is  not  because  we  have  lacked  men 
qualified  for  such  work.  Rev.  Spencer 
Lewis,  on  the  Bible  Revision  Committee, 
Professor  Headland's  books,  and  the  writ- 
ings of  Drs.  Kupfer,  Wilcox,  Ohlinger, 
Gamewell,  Mrs.  Gamewell,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Taft,  Mrs.  Baldwin,  Lacey  Sites,  Miss 
Howe,  W.  F.  Walker,  Jr.,  the  articles  by 


86  China  and  Methodism. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brewster,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
St.  John,  Mr.  Beach,  Miss  Laura  White, 
and  others,  show  that  we  have  people 
in  connection  with  our  missions  quaH- 
ified  for  literary  work.  We  have,  however, 
so  impressed  upon  our  missionaries  the 
practical  duties  of  the  mission,  and  espe- 
cially teaching  and  evangelistic  work,  that 
we  have  not  left  them  the  time  for  the  pro- 
duction of  a  Methodist  literature  or  an 
Arminian  theology. 

From  the  statistics  we  have  only  three 
per  cent  of  the  hospitals.  But  as  the  sta- 
tistics given  by  Professor  Beach  show  only 
seven  hospitals  for  our  Church,  whereas  we 
are  maintaining  in  China  to-day  seventeen 
hospitals,  the  report  furnished  in  1900  was 
probably  defective.  Our  hospitals  also 
are  among  the  largest  in  China.  Hence  w^e 
are  doing  our  full  share  of  medical  work. 

Turning  to  the  third  form  of  missionary 
activity — namely,  teaching — the  statistics 
show  that  with  six  per  cent  of  the  workers 
we  are  teaching  twenty-one  per  cent  of  all 
students  in  day  schools,  and  training  six- 
teen per  cent  of  all  students  in  higher  in- 
stitutions of  learning.     This  report  is  ex- 


M.  E.  Church  in  China.  87 

ceedingly  gratifying,  and  shows  that  Meth- 
odism in  China,  as  at  home,  is  leading  in 
educational  work. 

Turning  to  the  fourth  and  highest  form 
of  missionary  activity — namely,  preaching — 
the  statistics  show  that  with  six  per  cent 
of  the  missionaries,  and  a  very  small  pro- 
portion of  these  engaged  in  direct  evangel- 
istic work,  we  have  twenty-two  per  cent  of 
the  membership  of  the  Protestant  Churches 
in  China.  The  report  furnished  to  Pro- 
fessor Beach  includes  full  members  and 
probationers  in  the  Methodist  Church,  but 
not  inquirers  or  adherents.  Some  of  our 
missionaries  feel  that  in  this  comparison 
we  ought  only  to  count  our  members  in  full, 
and  not  our  probationers.  Putting  the  com- 
parison on  this  basis,  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  with  six  per  cent  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, has  twelve  per  cent  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Protestant  Churches  in  the  em- 
pire. From  conversations  with  our  mission- 
aries and  a  comparative  study  of  the  sta- 
tistics, however,  I  believe  that  we  are  en- 
titled to  include  in  our  report  probationers 
as  well  as  full  members,  and  I  think  our 
Church  may  justly  claim  twenty-two  per 


88  China  and  Methodism. 

cent  of  all  Protestant  Christians  in  the  em- 
pire. Besides,  the  gains  of  the  last  seven 
years  give  us  some  32,000  members  and 
probationers  in  1907,  as  compared  with 
25,244  in  1900.  In  a  word,  the  comparison 
shows  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  China  is  accomplishing  far  larger  results 
relatively  in  hospitals  than  at  home,  because 
hospitals  have  proved  one  of  the  providen- 
tial means  of  gaining  access  to  peoples 
hostile  to  Christianity.  In  education  and 
in  the  spiritual  transformation  of  the  em- 
pire, the  missionaries  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  are  accomplishing  by  in- 
disputable statistics  two  or  three  times  as 
much  as  the  number  of  men  and  women 
sent  to  the  field  and  the  money  given  to 
China  give  us  any  right  to  expect.  Surely 
we  may  thank  God  for  wisdom  in  the  use 
of  means  and  for  the  consecrated  men  and 
women  who  are  giving  their  lives  for  the 
advancement  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom  in 
this  great  empire. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Possi  biIvITie;s. 

Th:^  Awakening  oi^  th^  Empire. 
It  may  seem  that  the  Boxer  Uprising, 
and  especially  the  unrest  which  character- 
izes China  at  the  present  time  make  the 
prosecution  of  missionary  work  in  China 
now  unsafe  and  unfruitful.  There  is  un- 
rest in  China  to-day,  and  missionary  work 
may  be  attended  with  some  degree  of  risk 
to  the  missionaries.  But  the  present  un- 
rest in  China  is  no  more  a  recrudescence  of 
Boxerism  than  the  revolution  now  taking 
place  in  Russia  is  a  fresh  manifestation 
of  the  old-time  autocratic  tyranny.  The 
Boxer  movement  was  in  the  hands  of  old 
men;  the  present  unrest  in  China  is  fo- 
mented by  young  men.  Boxerism  was  ex- 
ceedingly loyal  to  the  existing  dynasty ;  the 
present  movement  is  at  least  critical,  if  not 
89 


90  China  and  Methodism. 

hostile  to  the  reigning  dynasty.  Boxerism 
was  an  attempt  to  push  Europeans  and 
Americans  out  of  China  and  leave  her  un- 
disturbed in  her  civilization  three  thou- 
sand years  old;  the  present  movement  is 
an  attempt  to  modify  the  existing  civiliza- 
tion and  bring  China  out  as  a  modern  na- 
tion. The  most  striking  fact  in  modern 
history  is  the  awakening  of  China  in  the  last 
five  years. 

Doctor  Griffith  John,  who  celebrated  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  work  in  China 
in  1905,  and  whose  statements  are  given 
the  widest  publicity  and  the  heartiest  in- 
dorsement in  the  London  Times,  said  re- 
cently that  the  change  which  has  come  over 
China  since  the  Boxer  uprising  is  nothing 
less  than  a  revolution.  He  added  that  had 
this  change  been  characterized  by  the  blood- 
shed which  has  taken  place  in  Russia,  or 
by  the  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution, 
the  eyes  of  the  world  to-day  would  be,  not 
upon  Russia,  but  upon  China. 

Arthur  Smith,  D.  D.,  said  before  a  body 
of  missionaries  last  summer  that  China  has 
made  more  progress  since  1900  than  any 
other  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe.    He 


Possibilities.  91 

did  not  mean  that  China  had  advanced  her 
output  of  coal  and  iron  or  had  constructed 
more  miles  of  railroad  than  the  United 
States ;  but  he  meant  that  China  had  made 
a  far  more  profound  change  in  her  atti- 
tude toward  modern  civilization  than  has 
the  United  States,  or  Japan,  or  any  other 
nation  during  this  period.  A  few  days  af- 
ter Doctor  Smith's  address,  I  asked  Sir 
Robert  Hart,  the  ablest  Englishman  in 
China,  if  he  accepted  Doctor  Smith's 
view.  He  replied :  ''It  is  substantially  cor- 
rect. Let  me  put  the  matter  in  my  own 
language.  During  the  first  forty-five  years 
of  my  residence  in  China,  the  empire 
seemed  to  be,  so  far  as  the  influence  of  for- 
eign nations  was  concerned,  a  closed  room 
without  a  breath  of  air  from  the  out- 
side world  reaching  us.  I  could  not  see 
that  the  Chinese  were  in  the  least  conscious 
that  any  other  nation  upon  the  face  of  the 
globe  existed.  Upon  the  contrary,  during 
the  last  five  years,  every  door  and  window 
has  been  opened,  and  the  breezes  from  all 
parts  of  the  earth  have  been  blowing 
through  China.    We  may  expect  occasional 


92  China  and  Methodism. 

thunder-storms,  and  possibly  a  typhoon 
may  sweep  us  out  of  the  empire ;  but  China 
will  never  again  be  closed  to  western  influ- 
ences." 

In  proof  of  the  statements  of  these  au- 
thorities, note  the  fact  that  five  years  ago 
there  were  from  one  to  two  hundred  post- 
offices  for  all  China;  now  there  are  seven- 
teen hundred.  There  were  three  newspa- 
pers published  in  Tientsin  four  years  ago; 
now  there  are  twenty-one  newspapers  in 
that  city.  This  marvelous  increase  of  news- 
paper circulation  is  characteristic  of  all 
leading  cities  of  the  coast.  A  more  far- 
reaching  indication  of  progress  is  the  fact 
that  Yuan  Shih  Kai,  the  most  energetic 
and  progressive  viceroy  in  the  empire,  has 
established  over  five  thousand  schools,  more 
or  less  modern,  in  a  single  province,  within 
recent  years,  and  these  schools  have  an 
enrollment  of  more  tKan  fifty  thousand. 
This  is  but  an  indication  of  the  educational 
reform  which  is  sweeping  the  empire.  The 
most  spectacular  change  is  the  edict  of  the 
empress  dowager,  decreeing  that  while  all 
present  graduates  of  the  old  system  shall 
be  eligible  for  office,  the  future  officials  of 


Possibilities.  93 

the  empire  must  have  some  examinations 
in  western  learning,  arts  and  sciences. 
Without  doubt,  China  is  awake.  A  new 
civilization  is  being  formed.  The  question 
which  confronts  Christendom  is,  Will  this 
civilization  be  cast  in  materialistic  or  in 
Christian  molds? 

With  the  awakening  of  the  empire  comes 
the  opportunity  of  thirty  centuries  for  win- 
ning the  Chinese  for  Christ.  Doctor  John 
says  that  he  is  not  so  much  concerned  over 
the  awakening  of  the  empire  as  he  is  about 
the  awakening  of  the  Churches  of  Europe 
and  America  to  the  opportunity  which  con- 
fronts them.  The  people  are  breaking 
away  from  the  customs  and  the  civilization 
of  three  thousand  years;  western  civiliza- 
tion is  invading  the  empire.  Christianity 
carries  with  it  the  prestige  of  being  the  re- 
ligion of  the  west.  The  Chinese  are  ready, 
with  Queen  Victoria,  to  assign  the  cause 
of  the  greatness  of  western  nations  to  the 
Bible  and  Christianity.  This  time  of 
change  offers  marvelous  opportunities  in 
each  of  the  four  lines  of  missionary  activ- 
ity. 

In  the  first  of  these  departments  of  Chris- 


94  China  and  Methodism. 

tian  work  in  China — namely,  the  distribu- 
tion of  Christian  Hterature — ^the  Chinese 
^      ,       reverence  for  learning  has  always 

Distribut-  ^  .   .  X 

ing  Liter-  Opened  up  opportunities.  bo 
ture  great  is  that  reverence  that  not  a 
scrap  of  paper  with  a  Chinese  character 
on  it  is  trampled  under  foot,  and  through- 
out the  cities  of  the  empire  you  will  find 
receptacles  for  the  reverent  burning  of  all 
pieces  of  paper.  But  the  eagerness  for 
western  learning  at  the  present  time  offers 
an  especial  opportunity  for  the  dissemina- 
tion of  Christian  literature.  Doctor  Grif- 
fith John  told  me  in  a  recent  interview  that 
whereas  during  the  first  forty-five  years  of 
his  work  in  China,  he  found  it  difficult  to 
sell  or  even  to  give  away  Christian  tracts, 
the  society  with  which  he  is  connected  is 
publishing  and  selling  at  Hankow  at  the 
present  time  a  million  copies  of  the  Bible 
or  portions  of  the  Bible  a  year.  The  mis- 
sionaries have  overcome  the  greatest  ob- 
stacle to  the  dissemination  of  the  Word  of 
God  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the 
universal  written  language  of  the  Chinese. 
The  New  Testament  is  now  sold  in  China 
for  three  cents  a  copy.    This  is  slightly  less 


Possibilities.  95 

than  the  cost  of  production.  It  is  entirely 
saf'^^,  however,  to  say  that  with  the  improved 
methods  of  publication,  fifty  million  copies 
of  the  New  Testament  could  be  produced 
at  a  cost  of  one  and  a  half  million  dollars. 
With  ten  per  cent  of  all  the  men  in  China 
able  to  read  and  write,  this  issue  would 
furnish  one  copy  of  the  New  Testament 
for  every  home  in  China  in  which  it  could 
be  read.  While  the  missionaries,  teachers, 
and  physicians  in  China  are  by  no  means 
sufficient  to  cover  the  whole  field  thor- 
oughly, nevertheless  a  careful  calculation 
shows  that  with  the  use  of  the  mission- 
aries and  other  workers  whose  salaries  are 
paid  by  their  Churches,  re-enforced  by  Chi- 
nese colporteurs,  these  books  could  be  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  empire  at  a  cost  of 
half  a  million  dollars.  Many  of  the  tracts 
would  be  purchased,  and  the  amount  neces- 
sary to  be  raised  greatly  lessened.  But  it  is 
possible  for  two  million  dollars  raised 
by  the  sale  of  tracts  or  contributed  in  Amer- 
ica, to  evangelize — not  to  Christianize, — ^but 
to  present  the  gospel  in  the  native  language 
to  the  Chinese,  and  thus  give  a  fourth  of 
the  human  race  within  the  next  ten  years 


96  China  and  Methodism. 

as  full  a  knowledge  of  salvation  as  Europe 
had  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  The 
providential  time  for  the  distribution  of  the 
Bible  in  China  is  when  the  empire  is  emerg- 
ing from  the  civilization  of  the  last  thirty 
centuries,  and  is  entering  upon  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  western  world.  Neglect 
this  opportunity  for  the  next  twenty-five 
years,  and  the  new  civilization  of  China 
will  then  be  set  in  materialistic  molds,  and 
the  same  effort  will  not  accomplish  a  tenth 
or  perhaps  not  a  twentieth  as  much  for  the 
empire  as  it  will  accomplish  at  the  opening 
of  the  twentieth  century. 

In  the  second  department — medical  work 

— now  is  the  time  of  unique  opportunity. 

The  awakening  of  the  empire  has  brought 

a  great  interest  in  western  medical 

Medical    science  :  but  aside  from  the  mission 

Work 

hospitals  and  physicians,  there  is 
practically  no  modern  medical  science  in 
China.  Twenty-five  years  from  now  the 
present  opportunity  will  have  passed  by,  for 
the  Chinese  Government  will  have  founded 
hospitals,  and  the  mission  plants  will  not 
be  alone  in  the  field.  Already  the  Japanese 
Government   has   established   some   of  the 


Possibilities.  97 

finest  hospitals  in  the  world.  In  China, 
however,  the  Mission  Hospital  is  often 
the  only  method  of  introducing  modern 
medical  practice  among  populations  num- 
bering from  five  to  twenty  million.  It 
links  Christianity  in  a  pecuHar  way 
with  the  best  in  western  science.  It 
is  the  one  unanswerable  argument  in 
communities  prejudiced  against  Chris- 
tianity. Again  and  again  the  Chinese 
Christians  have  been  able  to  point  out  to 
hostile  persons,  man  after  man,  woman  af- 
ter woman,  child  after  child,  whose  life 
has  been  saved  by  our  Christian  physicians 
when  the  Chinese  had  abandoned  the  patient 
to  death.  In  a  peculiar  sense  the  medical 
missionary  is  reproducing  the  deeds  of  the 
Master,  who  went  about  doing  good;  and 
it  is  simply  impossible  in  China,  as  else- 
where, to  speak  against  such  humanitarian 
service.  Indeed,  already  the  Chinese  so 
fully  appreciate  our  hospitals  that  they  are 
generously  contributing  for  their  support, 
and  in  cities  like  Antau  and  Nanchang,  they 
are  offering  to  raise  the  money  for  the 
building  and  equipping  of  hospitals  if  we 
will  furnish  a  physician.    Here  is  a  provi- 

7 


98  China  and  Methodism. 

dential  opportunity  now  open  to  the  Church 
in  medical  work  such  as  she  never  enjoyed 
before  and  such  as  she  will  never  enjoy 
in  China  again. 

In  the  third  department — that  of  educa- 
tion— the   great   demand    for   the    western 
learning  and  English  has  opened  a  door  of 
P  wonderful  opportunity  at  the  pres- 

tional  ent  time.  Our  mission  schools 
^°^^  and  colleges  are  now  the  best 
equipped  in  the  country,  and  they  are  over- 
flowing with  students.  We  must  move 
speedily,  however,  and  greatly  increase  our 
present  equipment  and  plants  in  order  to 
take  advantage  of  this  opportunity.  Gov- 
ernment schools  are  being  rapidly  estab- 
lished and  government  competition  will  be 
keen  in  the  years  ahead.  Already  the  gov- 
ernment schools  of  Japan  are  superior  in 
equipment  to  most  of  the  Christian  schools. 
Indeed,  the  University  of  Tokyo  has  one 
hundred  and  twenty-three  professors  in  its 
scientific  department,  twenty-one  of  whom 
are  in  the  engineering  department  alone; 
and  every  man  of  them  has  his  Ph.  D.  de- 
gree from  Europe  or  America.  Indeed, 
Japan  has  to-day  one  of  the  best-equipped 


Possibilities.  99 

technical  schools  upon  the  face  of  the  globe. 
China  is  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Japan, 
and  there  will  be  a  speedy  development  in 
government  education.  Were  it  possible  for 
government  schools  to  be  distinctly  evan- 
gelical in  their  influence,  we  might  leave 
education  to  the  State.  But  even  in  Amer- 
ica, in  the  State  universities,  the  opportu- 
nities for  Christian  training  are  largely  lim- 
ited. To  abandon  the  Church  schools  in 
China  would  be  to  lose  the  opportunity  of 
putting  the  stamp  of  Christ  on  the  student 
life  of  the  country,  to  lose  one  of  the  most 
effective  of  evangelizing  agencies,  and  the 
only  agency  for  training  ministers  and 
making  Christianity  self-propagating 
throughout  the  empire.  Moreover,  the  gov- 
ernment education  in  China  to-day  is  not 
only  negative  so  far  as  Christianity  is  con- 
cerned, but  positively  heathen  in  its  influ- 
ence. Teachers  and  pupils  are  required  to 
worship  Confucius,  and  immorality  is  prev- 
alent. If  the  ban  of  heathen  worship  is  re- 
moved, we  may  well  covet  loaning  to 
China  our  best-equipped  men  for  the  schools 
of  learning  which  the  government  is  estab- 
lishing in  order  to  put  the  stamp  of  Christ 


100         China  and  Methodism. 

so  far  as  possible  on  the  rising  national  edu- 
cation of  the  country.  But  it  will  always 
be  necessary  in  China,  as  in  America,  to 
have  the  Church  schools  for  distinctly  evan- 
gelical education.  If  we  succeed  in  intro- 
ducing the  English  language  into  the 
schools  of  China,  as  it  is  now  taught  in  the 
schools  of  Japan,  and  as  it  seems  to  be 
coming  in  China,  God  will  use  this  instru- 
ment alone  to  evangelize  in  some  measure 
the  empire  of  China  just  as  he  used  the 
Greek  language  to  transform  the  civilization 
of  her  Asiatic  conquerors,  and  the  Latin 
language  to  evangelize  the  Teutonic  and 
Celtic  races;  and  further,  if  the  various 
Churches  will  unite  in  founding  institutions 
of  Christian  learning,  fitted  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  western  arts  and  science  equal  to 
that  furnished  in  the  national  institutions, 
and,  above  all,  if  our  Christian  colleges  are 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  I  be- 
lieve that  during  the  next  twenty-five  or 
fifty  years  the  Christian  schools  and  colleges 
of  China  will  play  ^n  important  and  provi- 
dential part  in  casting  into  Christian  molds 
for  all  time  to  come  the  new  civilization  of 
a  fourth  of  the  human  race.    The  demand 


Possibilities.  101 

for  immediate  action  is  all  the  more  impe- 
rious when  we  remember  that  ten  thou- 
sand dollars,  or  even  five  thousand  dollars, 
will  accompHsh  as  much  to-day  in  China 
as  a  similar  amount  accomplished  at  Har- 
vard or  Yale  two  hundred  years  ago,  and 
as  much  as  twenty  times  that  amount  will 
accomplish  in  an  American  university  to- 
day. The  opportunity  in  education  which 
now  confronts  the  Christian  Churches  is  the 
greatest  in  the   Church's  history. 

Turning   to   the    great    and     distinctive 
work  of  preaching  the  gospel — the  evan- 
gelistic work — here  again  the  op- 
Evangel-    portunities  are    simply  boundless. 

IStlC  Work    Jl  .    ,  r  1   .    .      , 

The  spirit  of  prayer  which  has  in 
an  unusual  degree  taken  possession  of 
the  missionaries  in  China  since  the 
Welsh  revival ;  the  spirit  of  unity  and 
co-operation  which  have  grown  mark- 
edly since  the  Boxer  uprising;  the  re- 
markable revivals  at  Foochow,  Hing- 
hua,  in  Shantung,  West  China,  throughout 
Chihli,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  em- 
pire during  the  last  winter ;  the  forma- 
tion by  the  Chinese  on  their  own  initi- 
ative of  a  Student  Volunteer  Band,  with 


102         China  and  Methodism. 

an  enrollment  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  at  Peking  University,  the  numer- 
ous revivals  which  have  graciously  visited 
other  Churches  during  the  past  winter, 
indicate  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  moving  upon 
the  hearts  of  the  Chinese  for  the  develop- 
ment of  a  self-supporting  and  self -propagat- 
ing Christianity  in  the  empire.  On  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  occasions,  after  preaching 
in  China,  I  have  given  the  invitation  to  the 
Chinese  immediately  to  accept  Christ,  and 
in  every  single  instance  I  have  had  a  re- 
sponse, the  numbers  varying  from  two  or 
three  to  as  high  as  one  or  two  hundred. 
No  man  can  visit  the  Protestant  Missions 
of  China  and  compare  the  present  condi- 
tions with  the  reports  of  the  struggles  and 
difficulties  of  preceding  years  without  ac- 
cepting the  judgment  of  Doctor  Griffith 
John  that  if  the  Churches  of  Europe  and 
America  awaken  to  the  situation,  their 
representatives  in  China  can  enroll  inquir- 
ers during  the  next  few  years  literally  by 
the  tens  of  thousands.  Indeed,  those  Chris- 
tian Churches  which  heed  the  call  of  the 
Master  and  meet  the  present  opportunity  in 
China  will  become  the  leading  Churches  of 


Possibilities.  103 

this  vast  empire  for  all  time  to  come.  The 
awakening  has  already  come  in  China.  The 
question  is,  Will  the  Churches  of  Europe 
and  America  meet  the  providential  oppor- 
tunity ? 

As  the  Mediterranean  Basin  was  the  seat 
of  empire  and  of  imperial  struggle  in  the 
days  of  the  Caesars;  as  the  Atlantic  Basin 
has  been  the  seat  of  modern  civilization, 
so  the  Pacific  Basin  will  be  the  center  of 
the  civilization  and  the  action  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  The  same  ambition  and  en- 
ergy which  prompted  our  ancestors  to  leave 
Europe  for  the  New  World,  which 
prompted  our  fathers  and  mothers  to  leave 
the  New  England  Coast  for  the  Mississippi 
Valley, — ^that  same  energy  and  aspiration 
for  leadership,  not  unmingled  with  hero- 
ism, will  push  their  descendants  on  to  the 
far-flung  battle-line  in  the  conflict  between 
the  civilization  of  the  Occident  and  the 
Orient  already  on  around  the  Pacific  Basin. 
The  same  statesmanship  and  generosity 
which  led  to  the  laying  of  the  foundations 
of  Columbia  and  Yale  and  Harvard  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  will  lead  equally  wise 
and  generous  men  to  lay  the  foundations 


104         China  and  Methodism. 

in  the  twentieth  century  of  the  Harvards 
and  Yales  and  Columbias  of  China.  The 
same  combination  of  Christian  statesman- 
ship and  lofty  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the 
Master  which  led  our  Methodist  fathers  and 
mothers  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  king- 
dom in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  indeed 
throughout  the  United  States,  will  lead 
them  to  lay  equally  broad  and  deep  the 
foundations  of  Methodism  throughout  the 
Chinese  Empire.  Were  modern  science  to 
discover  a  new  continent  at  either  pole,  with 
a  population  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion, Methodism  would  have  missionaries 
on  the  way  to  the  new  field  within  a  month. 
But  our  Church  has  missionaries  in  only 
nine  of  the  twenty-two  provinces  of  China. 
There  are  two  hundred  and  fifty  million 
people  in  China  to-day  who  are  not  touched 
by  the  Methodist  Church,  and  are  scarcely 
touched  by  any  other  mission. 

Three  hundred  thousand  dollars  con- 
tributed to  our  missions  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  centennial  of  Protestant  mis- 
sions in  China  in  1907  will  enable  our 
Church  to  strengthen  existing  missions  and 
to   enlarge  her  borders,  so  that  she  can 


Possibilities.  105 

have  a  million  members  and  probationers 
in  China  within  the  next  fifty  years,  and  so 
that  she  will  be  able  to  do  her  full  share  in 
evangelizing  this  fourth  of  the  human  race, 
just  emerging  into  modern  life.  Surely 
with  every  man,  woman,  and  child  arising 
to  the  occasion  and  making  some  contribu- 
tion for  this  centennial,  we  may  easily  real- 
ize this  amount.  Methodist  statesmanship 
will  not  rest  content  with  a  bare  foothold  in 
nine  of  the  twenty-two  provinces,  but  will 
lay  at  least  as  broad  foundations  for  the 
four  hundred  and  thirty-eight  million  peo- 
ple now  occupying  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia 
as  for  the  eighty  million  people  in  the  home- 
land ;  and  Methodist  devotion  to  the  Master 
will  lead  to  the  additional  sacrifices  neces- 
sary to  offer  the  gospel  to  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty  million  people  whom  we  are  thus 
far  not  attempting  to  reach,  and  who  are 
scared}^  touched  by  any  other  mission.  The 
opportunity  becomes  almost  imperious  when 
we  remember  that  the  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  asked  for  will  accomplish  as 
much  as  three  million  dollars  will  accom- 
plish in  another  generation.  Shall  the  new 
civilization  of  China  be  cast  in  Christian 


106        China  and  Methodism. 

or  materialistic  molds  is  the  question  which 
must  be  decided  within  the  next  twenty- 
five  or  fifty  years.  Upon  the  Christian 
Churches  of  Europe  and  America  rests  the 
decision. 


Contributions  of 
Native  Church..., 


No.  Patients 
Treated 


No.  Hospitals.. 


«» 

S  y^ 


u  i 


CO      1-1      o>      cc 


No.  Pupils.. 


No.  Day  and  Other        o 
Schools  ^ 


fe     ^ 


No.  Enrolled.. 


No.  High  Schools..  | 


No.  Enrolled.. 


i  3  s  ^ 


No.BiblicalSchools  |      •» 


Students  Enrolled.. 


No.  of  Colleges.., 


No.  of  Sunday- 
school  Scholars.. 


No.  of  Sunday- 
schools 


Per  Cent  Increase.. 


Amount  Increase.., 


Members  and  Pro- 
bationers,   1904 


Total  No.  Members 
and  Probationers... 


Members  on  Proba- 
tion   

Members  in  Full 
Connection 

Native  Workers 

Total  No.  Mission- 
aries   

Missionaries 

W.  F.  M.  Society.. 
Missionaries  Parent 

Board  and  Wives.. 


I-H         rH         G^ 


CO       o 
O       OT 


3   3   s   s 
S    51    2    ^ 


Oi       CO       -t*       CO 


el^   w   u   ;z;   ^ 


107 


I  us 


C»         (M         ■«*         i-H         O         00 
■<*i        C^       lO       lO       CO 


u    ^ 


rt     H 


^ 
> 


-^  c 


>! 
^ 


o  o 


05;    «  S 
4J  .12     rt  <-' 


1^^ 


S^   s 


O  Q 

Is  ^ 


O    rt      «-- 


S<3 


^^^$ 


5  a 

C    4) 


o  o 

n3T3 


E^  o 

o  I    „ 

4-;    (U      U) 
•"WO 

>  ><    w 
o  «    .S 

1    f 


bo  .2 


C  OS     E  u 


O 

!2; 


N    CO         ■»*< 


^  iz;     ;?; 


THE  ROLL  OF  HONOR. 


LIST  OF  MISSIONARIES  WHO  HAVE 
GONE  TO  CHINA. 


I.    PARENT  BOARD. 

Arrived  in  China. 

Collins,  Judson  Dwight,  M.  D. Sept.    6,  1847. 

White,  Moses  Clark,  Rev., Sept.    6,  1847. 

White,  Mrs.  Isabel  Jane  Atwater, Sept.    6,  1847. 

Hickock,  Henry,  Rev., April  14,  1848. 

Hickock,  Mrs.  Henry, April  14,  1848. 

Maclay,  Robert  Samuel,  Rev., April  14,  1848. 

Maclay,  Mrs.  Henrietta  Caroline  Sperry July     6,  1850. 

Wiley,  Isaac  William,  M.  D., July     9,  1851. 

Wiley,  Mrs.  Frances  J.  Martin, July     9,  1851. 

White,  Mrs.  Mary  Seely  (Mrs.  Moses  C.  White)  July     9,  1851. 

Colder,  James,  Rev.,  .   .    • July     9,  1851. 

Colder,  Mrs.  Ellen  C.  Winebrcnner, July     9,  1851. 

Wentworth,  Erastus,  Rev., June  18,  1855. 

Wentworth,  Mrs.  Anna  M.  Lewis, June  18,  1855. 

Gibson,  Otis,  Rev., Aug.  12,  1855. 

Gibson,  Mrs.   Eliza  Chamberlin,   ........  Aug.  12,  1855. 

Woolston,  Miss  Beulah, Mar.  19,  1859. 

Woolston,  Miss   Sarah  H., Mar.  19,  1859. 

Wentworth,    Mrs.    Phebe   Potter   (Mrs.    Erastus 

Wentworth), Mar.  19,  1859. 

Baldwin,  Stephen  Livingstone,  Rev., Mar.  19, 1859. 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  Nellie  M.  Gorham, Mar.  19,  1859. 

Martin,  Carlos  Roscoe,  Rev., April   x,  i86o. 

108 


The  Roll  of  Honor.  109 

Arrived  in  China. 

Martin,  Mrs.  Mary, April   i,  i860. 

Sites,  Nathan,  Rev., Sept.  19,  1861, 

Sites,  Mrs.  Sarah  Moor6, Sept.  19,  1861. 

Binkley,  Samuel  Lybrand,  Rev., Mar.,  1862. 

Binkley,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Carter, Mar.,  1862. 

Baldwin,   Mrs.  Esther  E.    Jerman   (Mrs.   S.    L. 

Baldwin) 1862. 

Hart,  Virgil,  C,  Rev., May  27,  1866. 

Hart,  Mrs.  Addie,    ....*• May  27,  1866. 

Wheeler,  Lucius  Nathan,  Rev May  31,  1866. 

Wheeler,  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Davis, May  31,  1866. 

Lowry,  Hiram  Harrison,  Rev., Oct.    10,  1867. 

Lowry,  Mrs.  Parthenia  Elizabeth  Nicholson,  .    .  Oct.    10,  1867. 

Todd,  Elbert  S.,  Rev., Nov..  1867. 

Todd,  Mrs.  Emma, Nov.,  1867. 

Plumb,  Nathan  James,  Rev., Oct.    14,  1870. 

Pilcher,  Leander  William,  Rev., Oct.    20,  1870. 

Ing,  John,  Rev., Oct.    14,1870. 

Ing,  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  H., Oct.    14,  1870. 

Hall,  Henry  H.,  M.  D., Oct.    14,  1870. 

Davis,  George  Ritchie,  Rev., Oct.   21,  1870. 

Ohlinger,  Franklin,  Rev., Oct,    14,  1870. 

Davis,  Mrs.  Maria  Brown  Kane  (Mrs.  George  R. 

Davis), April    6,  1872. 

Gamewell,  Mrs.   Mary   Q.    Porter  (Mrs.   F.   D. 

Gamewell), April  6,  187a. 

Hall,  Mrs.  Henry  H., 1873. 

Plumb,  Mrs.  Julia  Walling  (Mrs.  N.  J.  Plumb), 1873. 

Pyke,  James   Howell,  Rev., Dec.  11,  1873. 

Pyke,  Mrs.  Annabel  Goodrich, Dec.  11,  1873. 

Walker,  Wilbur  Fisk,  Rev., Dec.    3, 1873. 

Walker,  Mrs.  Mary  Florence  Morrison,  ....  Dec.    3,  1873. 

Hykes,  John  Reside,  Rev., Nov.  22,  1873. 

Harris,   Sylvanus  D.,   Rev., Aug.,  1873. 

Harris,   Mrs.   Tillie  K.  Boyd, Aug.  1873. 

Stritmatter,  Andrew,  Rev.,   1873. 

Stritmatter,   Mrs.  Lucinda  L.  Combs,   1873. 

Edgell,  Benjamin  Ellis,   Rev., Nov.,  1873. 

Edgell,  Mrs.  Hannah  Louisa  Dawson, Nov.,  1873, 

Cook,  Albert  J.,  Rev., Nov.,  1873. 


110 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


ffe, 


Leander 


John  R 


Arrived  in  China, 
.  .  .  Nov.  lo,  1874. 
.   .    .  Nov.  10,  1874. 

1875. 

1875. 


1876. 


Chandler,  David  Warren,  Rev.,   .   .    , 
Chandler,  Mrs.  Mary  Eldora  Stanley, 
Tarbell,  William  E.,  M.  D.,     .... 
Tarbell,  Mrs.  William  E.,  .   .    . 
Ohlinger,  Mrs.  Bertha  Schweinfurth  (Mrs, 

lin  Ohlinger), 

Pilcher,  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Garwood  (Mi 

Pilcher) 

Benton,  William  G.,  Rev., 

Bagnall,  Benjamin,  Rev 

Willits,  Oscar  Wellington,  Rev.,  .  . 
Willits,  Mrs.  Caroline  T.  Mason,  .  . 
Carter,  Thomas  Coke,  Rev.,  .... 
Carter,  Mrs.  Maggie  Brown,  .... 
Taft,  Marcus  Lorenzo,  Rev.,  .... 
Hykes,  Mrs.  Rebecca  S.  Marshall  (M 

Hykes), 

Kupfer,  Carl  Frederick,  Rev.,    .   .   . 

Kupfer,  Mrs.  Lydia  Krill, 

Lewis,  Spencer,  Rev., 

Lewis,  Mrs.  Esther  Bilbie, 

Gamewell,  Francis  Dunlap,  Rev.,  . 
Verity,  Mrs.  Frances  Irene  Wheeler  (M 

Verity), 

Worley,  Thomas  H.,  Rev., 

Worley,  Mrs.  Alsa  Almeda  Cole,  .  , 
Woodall,  George  Washington,  Rev, 
Woodall,  Mrs.  Sarah  Reston,  .   .   .   , 

Taylor,  John  L.,M.D., 

Taylor,  Mrs.  John  L., 

Jackson,  James,   Rev., , 

Jackson,  Mrs.  Jame  Catherine  Radcl; 
Taft,  Mrs.  Emily  Louise  Kellogg  (Mrs, 

Taft), 

Smyth,  George  Blood,  Rev.,   . 

Wilcox,  Myron  Chesterfield,  Rev. 

Wilcox,  Mrs.  Jessie  Mary  Wood, 

Worley,  James  Harvey,  Rev.,   . 

Worley,  Mrs.  Imogene  Laura  Field, 

Hobart,  William  Thomas,  Rev Oct,  «i,  iSSa. 


G.  W, 


M.  L. 


Oct. 

13,  1876. 

1877. 

1879. 

Apri 

I,  1880. 

Apri 

I,  1880. 

1880. 

1880. 

1880. 

1881. 

Dec. 

28,  1881. 

Dec. 

28,  x88i. 

Nov. 

10,  1881. 

Nov. 

10,  1881. 

Oct. 

22,  1881. 

1881. 

Aug. 

20,  1 88a. 

Aug. 

20,  1882. 

Sept. 

5,  1882. 

Sept. 

5,  1882. 

1882. 

1882. 

1882. 

1882. 

1882. 

1882. 

Feb. 

3,  x88a. 

Feb. 

3,  1882. 

Sept. 

,  1883. 

Sept. 

,  1882. 

The  Roll  of  Honor. 


Ill 


(Mrs, 


Hobart,  Mrs.  Emily  Marcia  Hatfield,  . 
Longden,  Wilbur  Cummings,  Rev.,  .  . 
Longden,  Mrs.  Gertrude  Kidder,  .   .   . 

Crews,  George  Beggs,  Rev., 

Crews,  Mrs.  Katherine  V,  Town,  .   .   . 

Brown,  Frederick,  Rev., 

Smyth,  Mrs.  Alice  Barton  Harris  (Mrs.   G. 

Smyth), 

Beebe,  Robert  Case,  M.  D.,  Rev.,  .  . 

Beebe,  Mrs.  Harriet  Linn, 

Brewster,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Marie  Fisher 

N.  Brewster), 

Smith,  Joel  A.,  Rev 

Smith,  Mrs.  Florence  L.  Van  Fleet,  . 
Brown,    Mrs.    Agnes    Barker    (Mrs.     Frederi 

Brown), 

Walley,  John,  Rev.,  .   . 

Walley,  Mrs.  Louise  M., 

Little,  Edward  S.,  Rev., 

Little,  Mrs.  Carrie  Bate, 

Banbury,  James  Joseph,  Rev.,   .   .    . 

Banbury,  Mrs,,  Cecilia  Brown,  .   .   . 

Cady,  Henry  Olin,  Rev., 

Stuart,  George  Arthur,  M.  D.,  Rev., 
Stuart,  Mrs.  Rachel  Anna  Golden,, 
Hopkins,  Nehemiah  Somes,  M.  D,, 
Hopkins,  Mrs.  Fannie  Blanchard  Higgins, 
Nichols,  Don  Wright,  Rev.,  .... 
Nichols,  Mrs,  Anna  Ruth  Cubberly, 

Greer,  Miss  Vesta  O., 

Ferguson,  John  Galvin,  Rev.,  .  .  . 
Ferguson,  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Wilson,  .  . 
Curtiss,  William  Hamlin,  Rev,,  .  .  . 
Curtiss,  Mrs.  Florence  Davis,  .  .  . 
Wilcox,  Mrs.  Hattie  S.  Churchill  (Mrs.  M, 

Wilcox) 

Lacy,  William  Henry,  Rev., 
Lacy  Mrs.  Emma  Nind,  .  . 
Curnow,  James  Gats,  Rev.,  . 
Gregory,  James  J.,  Rev.,  .  . 


Arrived  in  China. 
Oct.,  1882. 
Oct.,  1883. 
Oct.  1883. 
Oct.  1883. 
Oct.  1883, 
1883. 


ck 


1884. 

1884. 

Nov.  17,  i884» 

1884. 

1884. 

188s. 

1886. 

1886. 

1886. 

1886. 

Dec.,  1886. 
Dec,  1886. 
Oct.  1886. 
Aug.    7,  1886. 
Aug.    7, 1886. 
April   7,  1886. 
April   7,  1886. 
Dec.  26,  1887. 
Dec.  26,  i887. 

1887. 

1887. 

1887. 

Nov.  12,  1887. 
Nov.  12,  1887. 

1887. 

Nov.  5,  1887. 
Nov.  5,  1887. 
Oct.  1887. 

x888, 


112 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


Gregory,  Mrs.  James  J.,  .  .  . 
Donohue,  Timothy,  Rev.,   .   . 
Donohue,  Mrs.  Timothy,   .   .   . 
Scott,  Mrs.  Lillian  G.  Hale  (Mrs.  J. 
Curnow,  Mrs.  Mary  Jane  Eland  (M] 

now) 

Brewster,  William  Nesbit,  Rev. 
Banbury,  Mrs.  Annie  S.  Bowen  (M; 

bury) 

Wright,  Amzi  Curtis,      .... 
Wright,  Mrs.  Sallie  E.  Lee,  .   . 
Jellison,  Ernest  Ruel,    M.  D., 
Jellison,  Mrs.  Rosa  Belle  Ryder, 
Davis,  Miss  Hattie  E.,  .   .   .   . 

Smith,  S.  A.,  Rev., 

Osborne,  D.  E.,  M,  D.,  .   .   .   . 

Stevens,  Leslie,  Rev., 

Stevens,  Mrs.  Minnie  J.  Phillips^ 
McBurnie,  Mrs.  Eva  J.,   .   .    . 
Jones,  Thomas  R.,  M.  D.,  .   . 
Jones,  Mrs.  Stella  B.  Nichols,  M.  D 
Headland,  Isaac  Taylor,  Prof. 
Headland,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  ...   . 
McCartney,  James  Henry,  M.  D 
McCartney,  Mrs.  Kasiah  Thomas, 
Hanzlik,  Miss  Laura  Catherine, 

Collier,  Miss  Clara, 

Verity,  George  Washington,  Rev, 
McNabb,  Robert  Leroy,  Rev.,  . 
McNabb,  Mrs.  Sarah  M.  Canan, 
Kepler,  Charles  O.,   Rev.,  .   .   . 
Kepler,  Mrs.  Charles  C,  .   .    .    . 

Barrow,  LaClede,  Rev., 

Barrow,  Mrs.  Mary  L.  King,  .    . 

Scott,  Julian  F.,M.  D., 

Miner,  George  Sullivan,  Prof.,  . 
Miner,  Mrs.  Mary  Phillips,  .   .   . 
Canright,  Harry  Lee,  M.  D.,  .    . 
Canright,  Mrs.  Margaret  Markham, 
Bosworth,  Miss  Sarah  Maria,  .... 


Scott) 
O. 


Cur. 


1  in  China. 

1888. 

1888, 


Jan. 

1888. 

Dec. 

31,  1888. 

1888. 

Nov 

5,  1889. 

Nov 

5,  1889. 

1889. 

1889. 

Dec. 

24,  1889. 

1889. 

1889. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

Nov. 

I,  1890. 

Nov. 

I,  1890. 

Nov. 

30,  1890. 

Nov. 

30,  1890. 

Mar. 

1891. 

Mar. 

4,  1891. 

Jan. 

1891. 

Jan. 

12,  1892. 

Jan. 

12,  1892. 

1892. 

1892. 

1892, 

1892. 

1892. 

Jan." 

I,  1892. 

Jan. 

I,  1892. 

Jan. 

II,  1892. 

Jan. 

II,  1892. 

Oct. 

10,  1892, 

The  RoU  of  Honor.  113 

Arrived  in  China. 

Irish,  Ralph  Orren,  Rev., Nov.  14, 1893, 

Irish,  Mrs.  Lucinda  Giffin, Nov,  14,  1893, 

Hayner,  James  Frederick,  Rev., 1893, 

Hayner,  Mrs.  Mabel  Sylvester  Shattuck, 1893. 

Gouchenour,  Mrs.  Mary  A., 1893. 

Boyd,  Mrs.  Martha  I.    Casterton, 1893. 

Peat,  Jacob  Franklin,   Rev., May   10,  1893, 

Peat,  Mrs.  Emily  May  Gaskell, May    10,  1893. 

Manly,  Wilson  Edward,  Rev., Mar.   15,  1893. 

Manly,  Mrs.   Florence  May  Brown, 1893, 

Hart,  Edgerton  Haskell,  M.  D., Sept.  16,  1893, 

Hart,  Mrs.   Rose  Elizabeth  Munn, Sept.  16,  1893. 

Lowry,  Edward  K.,  Mr., 1894. 

Terrell,  Miss  Alice, 1894, 

Myers,  Quincy  Allen,  Rev., Feb.  13,  1894. 

Myers,  Mrs.  Cora  Lacey, Feb.  13,  1894, 

Lowry,  George  Davis  N.,  M.  D., Nov.     8,  1894, 

Lowry,  Mrs.  Cora  Belle  Calhoun, Nov.    8,  1894, 

King,  Harry  Edwin,  Professor, Nov.    2,  1894, 

King,  Mrs.  Edna  Alexine  Haskins, Nov.    2,  1894, 

Headland,  Mrs.  Mariam  Sinclair,  M.  D.  (Mrs.   I. 

T.  Headland),    1894. 

McCartney,  Mrs.  Sarah  E.  Kissack  (Mrs.  J.  H. 

McCartney), „  1895. 

Newman,  Jesse  Ford, Oct.    5,  1895. 

Newman,  Mrs.  Lucy  Eliza  Wheeler, Oct.    5,  1895, 

Cady,  Mrs.  Hattie  Yates  (Mrs.  H.  O.  Cady), 1895. 

Curtiss,  Mrs.  Lulu  M.  Hale  (Mrs.  W.  H.  Curtiss), 1895. 

Owen,  Thomas  Buckley,  Rev., Dec.  25,1895. 

Wright,  Mrs..  Hattie  W.   Kelley    (Mrs.   A.    C. 

Wright),    1896. 

Wilson,  Miss  Mary  F., 1896, 

Simester,  James,  Rev., Sept.  27,  1896, 

Simester,  Mrs.  Winifred  Smack, Sept.  27,  1896. 

Mac Vey,  William  P.,  Rev., Sept   11,  1896, 

MacVey,  Mrs.  Ida  G., Sept.  11,  1896. 

Abbott,  Miss  Efifie  Louise, Oct.,  1896. 

Wilson,  Wilbur  Fisk,  Professor, Aug.  25, 1896. 

Main,  William  Artyn,  Rev., Sept.  27,  1896. 

Main,  Mrs.  Emma  Little, Sept.  27,  1896. 

8 


114 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


Arrived  in  China. 

James,  Edward,  Rev., Sept.,  1896. 

James,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  LeDoux, Sept.,  1896. 

Johanson,  Johan  August,  Rev., 1896. 

"Woolsey,  Frank  Mahlon,  M.  D., Feb.,  1897. 

Woolsey,  Mrs.  Hattie  E.  Elmore, Feb.,  1897. 

Skinner,  James  Edward,  M.  D., Nov.     9,  1897 

Skinner,  Mrs.  Susan  Hunt  Lawrence,  M.  D.,    .  Nov.    9, 1897. 

Bowen,  Arthur  John,  Rev., Oct.,  1897. 

Bowen,  Mrs.  Nora  Jones, Oct.,  1897. 

Lowry,    Mrs.  Katharine    Mullikin   (Mrs.    E.    K. 

Lowry), Sept.  1897. 

Marsh,  Ben   Herbert,  Professor,   ..,•••..  Nov.     7,  1898, 

Marsh,  Mrs.  Evelyn  C.  Pinkney, 1898, 

Rowe,  Harry  Fleming, Nov.  24,  il 

Rowe,  Mrs.  Maggie  Nelson,  Rev., Nov.  24,  i{ 

MacLean,  Robert  E.,  Rev.,  ....       Nov.     i,  il 

MacLean,  Mrs.  Effie  May  Potter, Nov.     i,  il 

Guthrie,  Fred  Lincoln,  Professor, Oct  .  17,  1899. 

Hall,  Osman  Frederick,  M.  D., May   23,  il 

Caldwell,  Ernest  Blake,  Rev., Dec.   19,  1899, 

Caldwell,  Mrs.  Gertrude  Flora   Beeler,    •.       .   .  Dec.   19,  i 

Martin,  James  Victor May     2,  1900. 

Guthrie,  Mrs.  AdelinaGoetz  (Mrs.  F.  L.  Guthrie),  1900 

Wilson,  Mrs.  Mary  L.  Rowley  (Mrs.  W.  F.  Wil- 


son),     

Beech,  Joseph,'  Rev., 

Beech,  Mrs.  Nellie  Miriam  Decker, 

Wilson,  John  F.,  Rev., 

Williams,  Walter  Webster,  M.  D.,   . 
Trindle,  John  Robert,  Rev.,    .... 

Kauffman,  Miss  Kate  E., 

Henke,  Frederick  G.,  Rev.,     .... 
Henke,  Mrs.  Salina  A.  Hirsch,  .   .   . 
Hall,  Mrs.  Christina  Williams  (Mrs.  O.  F, 
Charles,  Milton  R.,  M.  D.,   .   .    .   . 
Caldwell,  Harry  Russell,  Rev.,.   . 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Amanda  Goodrich   (Mrs. 

son). 


1900. 

.   .   .  Jan.    25,  1900. 

1900. 

1901. 

.   .   .  Mar.  24,  1901. 

1901. 

.   .   .  Feb.     8,  1901. 

1901. 

igot,  ) 

Hall), 1901. 

190Z. 

.   .  .  Jan.    26,  1901, 
F.  Wil- 

1902. 


Trindle,  Mrs.  Josie  Newland  (Mrs.  J.  R.  Trindle) 1902.  \ 


3t.  John,  Burton  Little,  Rev., 


,  3ept.,  1902, 


The  Roll  of  Honor.  115 


Arrived  in  China. 

St.  John,  Mrs.  lo  Barnes, Sept.,  1902. 

Gowdy,  John,  Rev., Sept.,  1902. 

Gowdy,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Thompson  .    .  , Sept.,  1902. 

Davis,  George  Lowry,  Rev., Oct.,  1902. 

Davis,  Mrs.  Irma  B.  Rardin, Oct.,  1902. 

Charles,  Mrs.   Marilla   Goodrich    (Mrs.    M.   R. 

Charles),   .   .   •   • 1902. 

Caldwell,  Mrs.  Mary  Belle  Cope  (Mrs.  H.  R.  Cald- 
well),    1902. 

Batcheller,  Walter  Benson,  M.  D., 1903. 

Batcheller,  Gertrude  Andres,  M.  D., 1903. 

Yost,  John  Wycliffe,  Professor, Oct.,  1903. 

Krause,  Oliver  Josiah,  Mr., Nov.  25,  1903. 

Keeler,  Joseph  Leonard,  M.  D., Nov.  25, 1903. 

Keeler,  Mrs.  Elma  A.  Nichol, Nov.  25,  1903. 

Hanson,  Perry  Oliver,  Rev., Nov.  10,  1903. 

Hanson,  Mrs.  Ruth  Ewing, Nov.  10,  1903. 

Dildine,  Harry  Glenn,  Rev Oct.,  1903. 

Dildine,  Mrs.  Maud  Fairbanks  LaDowe,  ....  Oct.,  1903. 

Crawford,  Walter  M.,   Rev., Dec,  1903. 

Bissonnette.  Wesley  S.,  Mr., Oct.,  1903. 

Bissonnette,  Mrs.  Estella  Evelyn  Stenhouse  (Mrs. 

W.  S.  Bissonnette), May,  1904. 

Yost,  Mrs.  Edna  A.  Bowman  (Mrs.  J.  W.  Yost),  .  Sept.,  1904. 

Ricker,  Raymond  Craver,  Prof., Sept.,  1904, 

Maddock,  Miss  Caroline   Emma, Oct.,  1904. 

Jones,  Edwin  Chester,  Prof., Oct.    22,  1904. 

Gibb,  John  McGregor,  Prof., Oct.,  1904. 

Ensign,  Charles  Francis,  M.  D Nov.,  1904. 

Ensign,  Mrs.  Myrtle,      Nov.,  1904, 

Jones,  Ulric  Robert,  Rev., Nov.,  1904. 

.Jones,  Mrs.  Glennie  Louise  Wood, Nov.,  1904. 

Trimble,  Frederick  Homer,  Mr., Jan.,  1905. 

Meek,   William  Shankland,   Mr., Nov.,  1904. 

Meek,  Mrs.   Maude  Van  Horn, Nov.,  1904. 

Taft,  Mr.   Mary  (Swail)  Wilkinson   (Mrs.  M.  L. 

Taft), Oct.,  1905. 

Martin,  Arthur  Wesley,  Prof., 1905. 

Martin,  Mrs.  Alice   Donaldson    Bull, 1905.  , 

Eyestone,  James  Bruce,  Rev., ,   .  Oct.,  1905, 


116 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


Craw 


F.  H 


Arrived  in  China. 

Oct.,  1905. 

Nov.,  1905. 

Nov..  1905. 


Eyestone,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Wright, 
Carson,  Frederick  Stanley,  Rev.,  . 
Carson,  Mrs.  Grace  Darling,  .  .  . 
Crawford,  Mrs.  Mabel  J.  Little  (Mrs.  W 

ford) 

Brown,  Grow  Stanley,  Rev.,  .... 
Freeman,  Claude  Wesley,  M.  D.,  . 
Trimble,  Mrs.  Rena  Nellie  Bowker  (M 

Trimble) 

Torrey,  Ray  Le  Valley,  Rev.,  .  .  . 
Houghton,  Henry  Spencer,  M.  D.,  . 
Houghton,  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Carmack, 

Ford,  Eddy  Lucius,  Rev., 

Ford,  Mrs.  Effie  Lillian  Collier  .  . 
Blackstone,  James  Harry,  Rev.,  .  . 
Blackstone,  Mrs.  Barbara  Treman,  . 
Bankhardt,  Frederick,  Rev.,  .... 

Williams,   Elrick,   Prof., 

Wincher,   Miss   Kate  A., 

Gibb,Mrs.Katherine  Cardlin  (Mrs.  J.  McG.  Gibb) 

Date  not  given 
Mortson,  Miss  Florence  L.,  .  .  Sailed  for  China  Nov.  26,  1906. 
Coole,  Thomas  H.,  M.  D.,  .    .    .      "        <<      «<  n       ^8, 

Coole,  Mrs.  T.  A., "        "      *'  "       28, 


Oct.,  1905. 
Oct.,  1905. 
1906. 

1906, 

1906, 

1906. 

1906. 

1906, 

1906. 

1906, 

1906, 

1906. 

1906. 

....  1906. 


II.     WOMAN'S   FOREIGN    MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY. 


1871. 

Woolston,  Beulah. 
Woolston,  Sarah. 
Brown,  Maria  (Davis). 
Porter,  Mary  G.  (Game well). 

1872. 
Hoag,  Lucy  H.,  M.  D. 
Howe,  Gertrude, 

1873. 
Combs,  Lucinda(Strittmater), 


1874. 
Mason,  Letitia,  M.  D.  (Quine). 
Trask,  Sigourney  (Cowles). 

1875. 
Campbell,  Letitia,  A. 

1877. 
Howard,  Leonora,  M.  D. 

1878. 
Sparr,  Julia,  M.  D.  (Coffin). 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


117 


1879. 

Bushnell,  Kate  C,  M.  D. 
Howe,  Delia  A. 

1880. 
Cushman,  CIa~a. 
Sears,  Anna  B. 
Yates,  Elizabeth  U. 

1881. 
Gilchrist,  Ella  M.,  M.  D. 
Wheeler,  Frances  (Verity). 

X882. 
Akers,  Stella,  M.  D. 

1883. 
Jewell,  Mrs.  Charlotte  M. 

1884. 
Corey,    Katherine,    M.    D. 

(Ford). 
Fisher,  Elizabeth  (Brewster). 
Jewell,  Carrie. 
Robinson,  Mary  C. 

1885. 
Gloss,  Anna  D.,  M.  D. 

1886. 
Green,  Nellie  R. 
Pray,  Susan.  M.  D. 

1887. 
Carlton,  Mary  E.,  M.  D. 
Hartford,  Mabel  C. 
Shaw,  Ella  C. 
Terry,  Edna  G.,  M.  D. 

1888. 
Bonafield,  Julia. 
Hale,  Lillian  G.   (Scott-Wej- 

day). 
Johnson,  Ella  (Kinnear). 
Ketring,  Mary,  M.  D. 
Mitchell,  Emma  L. 
Peters,  Sarah  L. 


Steere,  Anna  E. 
Trimble,  Lydia. 
Wilson,  Frances  O. 

1890. 
Benn,  Rachel,  M.  D. 
Lyon,  M.  Ellen,  M.  D. 
Stevenson,  Ida  B.,  M.  D. 

1891. 
Frey,  Cecelia  M. 
Ogborn,  Kate  L. 
Sites,  Ruth  M.  (Brown). 
White,  Laura  M. 

1892. 
Glover,  Ella  E, 
Harrington,     Susan     (Crous- 

land). 
Masters,  Luella,  M.  D. 
Stanton,  Alice  M.  (WoodrufT). 
Wilkinson,  Lydia  M. 
Young,  Effie  G. 

1893. 
Davis,  Mrs.  Anna  C. 
Donahue,  Julia  M.,  M.  D. 
Wilson,  Minnie  C. 

1894. 
Allen,  Mabel 
Galloway,  Helen  R. 
Meyer,  Fannie  E. 
Peters,  Mary 

1895. 

Barrow,  Mrs.  M.  L.,  M.  D. 
(King). 

Collier,  Clara  J. 

Croucher,  Meranda  (Pack- 
hard.) 

Harris,  Lillian,  M.  D. 

Hu  King  Eng,  M.  D. 

Kissack,  Sadie  E.  (McCart- 
ney). 


118 


The  Roll  of  Honor. 


1895. 

Linam,  Alice 

Rouse,  Wilma  H.  (Keene). 
Shockley,  Mary  E. 
Taft,  Gertrude,  M.  D. 
Todd,  Althea  M. 
Wells,  Phoebe 

X896. 
Deaver,  Ida  C. 

Oilman,  Gertrude 
Kahn,  Ida,  M.  D. 
Merrill,  Clara  E. 
Stone,  Mary,  M.  D. 

1897. 
Todd,  Grace. 

X898. 
Glenk,   Marguerite   (Burley). 
Lebeus,  Martha. 
Longstreet,  Isabella 
Varncy,  L.  W. 

1899. 
Dreibelbies,  Caroline 
Manning,  Ella 
Nicholaisen,  Martha  L. 
Parkinson,  Phoebe  A. 

1900. 
Adams,  Jean. 
Goetz,  Adeline  (Guthrie). 
Martin,  Elizabeth. 
Martin,  EmmajE.,  M.  D. 
Plumb,  Florence  J. 
Rowley,  Mary  L.  (Wilson). 

X901. 
Edmonds,  Agnes  M.,  M.  D. 
Marriott,  Jessie  A. 
Tibbet,  Mrs.  Susan. 
Williams,  Christiana  (Hall). 


1902. 
Pierce,  Thirza  M. 
Sia,  Mabel. 
Westcott,  Pauline  E. 

1903. 
Alexander,  Bessie. 
Deavitt,  La  Dona. 
Jones,  Dorothy. 
Travis,  Grace  F. 
Wheeler,  Maude  S. 

1904. 
Bartlett,  Carrie  M. 
Betow,  Emma  J.,  M.  D. 
Chrisholm,  Emma  M. 
Crane,  Edith  M. 
Crooks,  Grace  A. 
Glassburner,  Mamie  F. 
Hu,  Mary  L. 
Koons,  Sue  L.,  M.  D. 
Lorenze,  Frieda  V. 
McHose,  Lotta. 
Peters,  Alice. 
Strow,  Elizabeth. 
Stone,  Anna. 
Thomas,  Mary  M. 

1905- 
Hitchcock,  Frances  H. 
Hughes,  Jennie  V. 
LiBiCu,  M.  D. 
Newby,  Alta. 
Simester,  Mary  A. 
Stranik,  Gertrude. 
Wells,  Annie  M. 
Witte,  Helen  W. 

1906. 
Brethorst,  Alice. 
Draper,  Frances  L.,  M.  D. 
Horsinger,  Welthy  B. 
Knox,  Emma  M. 
Powell,  Alice  M. 
Strawic,  Gertrude. 
Tang,  Iliene. 


I 


CsJ 


YC148508 


,.^.ir»: 


